In The World of Monsters
by MrsDoll
Summary: What have Dean and Sam gotten themselves into this time...


I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE CHARACTERS FROM SUPERNATURAL BY ERIK KRIPKIE

Prologue

Stepping over fallen branches and deep piles of dead leaves, Natalie carefully navigated her way through the dark woods that surrounded her. The flashlight she used to light up her path casted a feeble, yellowish beam that barely penetrated the thick darkness.

"That idiot better have a good reason for wanting me to meet him here, this early," she muttered to herself, "3 A.M. is an hour used for sleep, not for hanging out by the lake."

After a few more minutes of stumbling through the dark, she finally made it out into the clearing. The moon over head shined an eerie light over the placid waters of the lake. It was silent; there wasn't even the sound of animals or the water lapping against the shore. Scanning the shoreline, she spotted her brother to the right, standing by the water.

She walked farther out into the clearing, and waved and called out to him, "John! Over here!" However, John stood in place, a looked towards the lake, in a dreamlike state. Confused, Natalie quietly strolled towards John.

Before she was even five feet away, a thrashing in the water broke the calm of the lake, causing Natalie to jump, startled. She stared at the violently splashing water, unable to see what was causing all the commotion.

"What the h-"she began to say, but her thoughts were interrupted by a strangled shout that sounded from John's direction.

She quickly turned her head to see what was wrong. The only thing she saw was kicked up dirt, and something quickly dipping into the water.

"John!" Natalie rushed over to where her brother previously stood, searching in vain for any signs of John under the surface of the lake. The murky, cloudiness of the water prevented her from seeing anything a foot below the surface.

Her heart stopped in her chest, her

brother was gone, disappeared, out of thin air. Suddenly, bubbles broke the surface five feet away in the water. Feeling a new surge of hope rise up in her, she called out for John, straining her eyes to see what was going on.

Then, a feeling of dread began to spread through her when she saw a shapeless cloud of crimson merge with the murky green water, right where John might have fallen in. Her eyes widened in fear, her body freezing in shock. She wanted to run, and call for help, but the only thing she could manage was to open her mouth and let out a blood curdling scream.

 **Chapter One**

The summer sun beat down with a vengeance on the somewhat busy highway; the heat making the tar of the road blisteringly hot. Cars of all shapes and sizes sped on, up and down the scorching road. A blue 1970 Chevy Camaro Ss with black stripes that went from the hood to the trunk also sped down the road.

In the driver's seat sat a young woman with shoulder length, brown hair. Her bright green eyes were trained on the road ahead. She had tan skin, with freckles that dotted her cheeks. She wore a dark green flannel shirt, unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up to the elbows; underneath she wore a black tank top.

The atmosphere inside the Camaro was serene, and soothing. The hum of the engine and smooth rumbling of the car were the only sounds in the car, except for the soft tapping of fingers on a keyboard.

"Cat, I think I found all the info we need. This one was pretty easy." A gently voice broke the silence. The driver, Cat, glanced over to her right and smiled at the person in the passenger seat.

"Oh, really? Well, looks like this trip won't last too long," Catherine looked back towards the road, "You should get some more sleep before we get there, Mae. You were up all night."

"I don't think I can sleep in this heat, plus we're almost there anyway." Mae sighed before shutting the laptop on her lap. Her long, dark brown hair was tucked behind her ears. Her eyes were a darker shade of green than her sister's, and she and paler skin. She was a bit shorter and wore a dark blue tank top.

"Well, be prepared to get lots of sleep, because as soon as we get to that motel, we are checking in, watching a movie, and then going to bed," Catherine said, smirking as she made an exit off the high way, "this is the last time I pull an all-nighter without coffee."

The Camaro slowed to the town speed limit as they drove through the city's downtown. On their right, a big sign read, "WELCOME TO GRAND RAPIDS." They passed by blocks of local drug stores and restaurants until they reached the other edge of the town. They then drove on past a couple of old logging mills before stopping at a blue and red flashing neon sign that read, "MOTEL." Underneath the main sign, another flashing neon symbol depicted a grinning lumberjack chopping down a tree.

Mae studied the sign and looked back at her sister. Cat was staring at the sign as well; she shot an unimpressed look at Mae.

"Really? Another weirdly themed motel?" Cat sighed and turned the car off, "next time, I'm picking the place where we sleep." Cat opened the door and stepped out, stretching her arms up over her head, getting the sleepiness out of her limbs.

Mae rolled her eyes and got out as well. "Whatever, it might be nice. You just have to give it a chance." Suddenly, a couple of bulbs in the signed burned out, with a few loud pops. Now, the lumberjack only had one arm as he swung his axe. Catherine raised an eyebrow and gave Mae another skeptical look.

Mae gave up any hope of winning the argument, and headed to the main office to check in. Cat followed behind and saluted the armless glowing lumberjack on her way through the door.

Once the girls finished checking in, they carried their luggage over to their room, on the door a brass number 12 was nailed, crooked, in the middle. After getting settled, they decided to visit the local convenience store to pick up some food to munch on during the movie.

They drove on past the logging mills and came to an intersection. Slowing the car to look both ways, Catherine checked to see if the coast was clear. The sun was halfway towards the horizon, so it shined straight into the girls' eyes. Catherine reached up to pull down the sun visor, when the car jolted to the right, catching them off guard.

Out of her peripheral vision, Catherine made out a black blur as it drove in tight on the left side of the Camaro for a few seconds. There was a high screech of metal on metal, before the black car quickly drove away and down the road the girls had just come from.

Catherine slammed on the brakes and watched the black car drive down the road behind them in the review mirror, until it was just a black speck.

"You ok?" Catherine asked, her nerves were tense, as she gripped the steering wheel.

"Yeah, I'm good. What about you?" Mae asked, glancing over at Catherine, concerned. She noticed the light tint of red on her sister's face.

"Oh yeah, just peachy." Catherine retorted. They sat in silence for a few moments. Mae knew that in one moment, all hell was about to break loose.

"Do you think it will be bad?" Catherine asked, her voice quivering in anger. Mae shrugged in response, knowing anything she said could be used against her when Catherine was in a rage. Surprisingly, she was taking this pretty well. She hadn't even raised her voice at all.

In one quick movement, Catherine unbuckled her seat belt, got out of the car, and was surveying the damage. Mae slowly sunk into her seat when she heard colorful language being shouted from outside. She sighed and slowly turned up the radio, so that she could block out the sailor talk erupting from Catherine. It was going to be a long night.

The girls made it to the store without any other problems, but the whole time Catherine was fuming, talking about all the things she would do once they found the unknown suspect who had left the indelible mark on the Camaro. As they were putting their groceries in the trunk, Catherine ran her hands along the long deep scratch on the driver's side door.

"I swear, I'm gonna tear that son of a bitch to shreds when I get my hands on him…" Catherine grumbled, as patted the car, almost as if she were comforting it. Mae silently climbed into the car, knowing that there was no way she could calm down her sister. The Camaro was practically part of the family; anyone who messed with it would have to deal with Catherine.

"Even if this is a small town, I don't think we are going to run into him again, no pun intended," Mae commented, mostly to herself, "It's not like he's just going to come knocking at our door."

Mae gave up on getting Catherine's mind off all the violent things she would do to the unfortunate driver of the infamous black car. Catherine shut the trunk and slid into the driver's seat and revved the engine.

"I know that there's only a slim chance, but I know we are going to meet that bastard. I can feel it in my bones" Catherine looked over at Mae, "and when we do meet, I just hope he can run as fast as he drives."

The ride back to the motel was uneventful, and they got back to the motel before sunset. Once they finished watching the movie, they got ready for bed. They also got everything prepared for tomorrow, and then turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Outside, the sun set beyond the horizon, and night fell over the quiet town. In the motel parking lot, to the right of the Camaro, a black car backed up into the parking space, rock music blaring from the inside.

Chapter Two

As soon as warm, morning light began to seep through the tacky pine tree themed curtains, Catherine rolled out of bed. She drowsily got dressed to go on her daily morning jog.

After getting dressed in a tank top and sweats, she began to tie up her hair. As she wrapped up her hair into a tight, high pony tail, she looked over to the bed where Mae slept. Sure enough, Mae was still fast asleep, tangled in a mess of sheets.

Smiling to herself, Catherine finished getting dressed and stepped outside. The morning air was cool and crisp. She looked over in the direction of the Camaro and decided to check on her car once before she left.

Walking up to the hood of the car, she ran her hands across the blue paint, and then over the deep jagged scratch. She sighed, patting the car before leaving. However, before running off, she noticed a black car parked a couple places away.

Studying the make of the car, she noticed it was a vintage, black Impala. It was one of her favorite vintage cars, and it was in pretty good condition. She didn't resist the urge to get closer and get a better look.

After a few minutes of admiring the Impala, she walked around the back to continue her run, but something glinted in the morning sunlight and caught her eye.

On the driver's side door, a long scratch graced the side. She frowned, who would do such a terrible thing to a beautiful car? She shrugged and then turned to run. She made it two blocks away before stopping dead in her tracks, a thought coming into her head, a look of realization on her face.

She turned on her heels and sprinted back towards the motel; whoever owned that Impala was about to go through hell.

Mae woke up to the sound of the door of the room slamming open, Catherine stood in the doorway, her chest heaving and her body language expressed that she was enraged.

"Well, good morning sunshine." Mae mumbled, sitting up and stretching.

"It was **THEM**." Catherine seethed, pointing towards a lone, black car outside.

"Who did what?" Mae asked, she was still half awake. She got up and peeked through the curtains, "Is this about the car again?"

"No, this isn't about the car, I just decided to point some random stranger out for the heck of it," Catherine yelled sarcastically, "of course it's about the car! The parking lot is empty, except for Memphis and the damn Impala. That means those dumb shits are here, right now. All we need to do is go and knock down a couple doors…"

"Whoa…" Mae rushed over to the door, and blocked Catherine from exiting the room, "I know you want to murder the person who scratched Memphis, but why don't we just…I dunno… talk to them about it?"

Catherine sent Mae a disbelieving look, "Talk to them? Someone damaged my baby, and you just want to give them a little **TALK**?"

Putting her hands up in defeat, Mae backed off and decided to let Catherine do her own thing, seeing as she wasn't about to get Catherine to come back to reason. She went to get ready for the day while Catherine continued to shout.

"Sure, why the hell not! Let's invite them over for tea!" Catherine's sarcasm wasn't directed specifically towards Mae, and the younger sister knew it. It was best to just let Catherine vent.

"Hell, we could maybe even exchange notes on caring for our cars, since those two dumb shits **WRECKED** Memphis!"

Mae came out of the bathroom, dressed for the day and was combing her hair; she paused and looked skeptically at Catherine, "First of all, how do you know there are two people? Second of all, the damage isn't too bad, it's just a scratch."

"I looked into the car; I saw two different jackets in the driver's seat and on the passenger seat," Catherine responded "and… a **SCRATCH**? You think that it was just a **SCRATCH**?"

Mae sighed and pulled out a couple of leftover snacks from the night before, Catherine was too pissed to stop her now.

Sam was up before sun rise, and was preparing to suite up in the usual FBI uniform to pose as agents to get info on the death that the boys had interest in.

A few days ago, in their weekly scan through newspapers for anything suspicious, they came across a story of a woman who claimed her brother was eaten by a creature in their local lake. This was nothing special at first, but what caught the boys' attention was the part of the article that stated similar reports have been repeated in the past, and lately there was an increase in deaths by the lake. The part that caused them to get packing was the mention of the creature in the lake that was invisible, and how the victims of the creature usually entered a dream-like state and refused to move away from the water's edge.

After laying out his blue suite out on his bed, Sam took a last look at the article, "INVISIBLE MONSTER CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM IN GRAND RAPID'S WATERS!" was the headline. A picture of the woman who reported the death of her brother was to the right; her name was in the caption below the photo, "Natalie Cartwright." Today, the boys were planning to go and talk to the woman about what she witnessed to get a sense of what the monster could be.

Just as he was about to start changing, Sam heard another round of yelling from the room to their right. Their next-door neighbors had been yelling all morning, and it didn't sound pleasant.

Sam thought for a moment and looked over at Dean. His brother was still out cold, snoring loudly and drooling over his pillow. Sam sighed and decided to check in on the people next door and see if everything was alright in the other room, even if he was still in his pajamas.

He quietly left the room and walked next door to room 12. The yelling was still going strong as he knocked on the door. Everything went silent after the third knock, and a few moments went by before he saw the blinds move ever so slightly and then heard the sound of locks being turned.

He was caught off guard when a firm grip wrapped around his arm, just as the door swung open. He was yanked into the room, without even saying a word.

"It was **YOU**!" a female voice boomed in Sam's face. His eyes were readjusting to the low light in the room, and when he could see clearly again, he found an angry freckled face glowering angrily at him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about…" Sam responded, confused. He started to get tense, was the girl a demon? Monster? Angel? Any of the above would have some reason to be angry with him. He cursed the fact he didn't have a weapon on him and prepared to fight for his life.

"Don't act so innocent… I should gank you right where you stand." Catherine seethed, Sam was taken aback; he only knew one person who would use a word like 'gank'…

"I honestly don't know what you are talking about." Sam confessed, hoping that his genuine confusion was picked up by the enraged girl, scowling at him.

"You pretentious asshole…" Catherine accused, he hands turning to fists. Sam took a step back, she might be something dangerous, but he wasn't going to risk fighting a normal human being. He became prepared to strike at any moment.

"I'm sorry, we had to meet this way, but I guess it can't be helped now," Sam was startled by the soft voice that trailed from the back of the room. Another girl? Sam became sorry he ever left the safety of his own motel room.

"Now, maybe we can settle things out, you know, share information and discuss how the damages will be repaired." The girl with the gentle voice said, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Damage?" Sam thought. Suddenly, the accident came back to mind. However, he didn't think these girls could possibly be the people in the other car who hit the Impala.

"What damage?" Sam asked, looking nervously back and forth between the two girls. The angry one's eye twitched.

"You've GOT to be kidding me… the scratch that **YOUR** dumbass left on my car!"

Sam looked Catherine, still clearly confused. Catherine's anger turned to disbelief, and she began to chuckle, "You're even thicker in the head than I thought."

Sam was caught off guard once more as he was suddenly whisked away, out the door and towards the blue Camaro parked by the Impala; he was being dragged by Catherine's steel grip. Mae stayed behind and decided to watch at a safe distance by the doorway, this was going to be interesting.

After about thirty minutes of yelling and arguing, Sam confirmed his theory about the girls being the people who ran into them the other day. However, when he told this to Catherine, it only added more fuel to the fire.

"We ran into you!?" Catherine yelled, still in disbelief. It was clearly the other way around. Sam sighed.

"Look, I wasn't the one driving, if you want I can go get hi…" Sam was interrupted by his motel room door opening, revealing a sleepy Dean stretching in the doorway.

"Hey Sammy, do you want to head into town for breakfa…" Dean stopped himself when he saw Catherine standing beside Sam, her hands on her hips.

"So it was you." She paused and turned to Sam and apologized before storming over to Dean. Dean looked at his brother, with a confused look on his face, pleading with his eyes for Sam to explain what was going on. Sam held up his hands and stepped back, he wasn't about to get in the middle of this again.

"You scratched my baby!" Catherine yelled, once she made it to the doorway, pointing to the Camaro. Dean thought for a moment. Who was this crazy chick? Then he remembered what had happened out on the road the other day.

"No, you scratched my car. You are the one who didn't come to a complete stop! We had the right of way!" Dean responded angrily, it was too early for this; and he wasn't about to get bossed around by some random girl.

"What a load of bullshit, we had the right of way and you know it. God… you guys are thick in the head…" Catherine said, Dean's eyes narrowed, and he raised his voice as well.

"Don't you go around calling us stupid! I mean what are you, 18? 19? Did you just learn how to drive or something?"

Catherine began to use her icy glare on Dean, and he took a step back, "Yeah, sure, I'm 18. Just got my permit. No you idiot! I'm in my 20s, you dip shit!"

Dean didn't like the tone of voice she was using against him; usually he was the sarcastic one. He took this opportunity to really get under her skin.

"Well at least I know how to drive! Plus, I wouldn't be caught dead in your car." Catherine's glare turned up 10 notches, and Dean immediately regretted opening his mouth.

"Don't you **DARE** talk that way about Memphis." Catherine hissed, her hands turning to fists at her side.

Dean took a step forward; he wanted to see just how far this chick was willing to go with the argument. "Make me."

Catherine swung her right arm up, aiming to punch Dean under the chin, but his reflexes were quick, and he ducked and avoided the blow. He smirked, he would never advocate fighting a girl, but he found it amusing that she thought she could land a hit on him.

Dean's grin was wiped off his face when he suddenly found his feet giving out underneath him. Catherine had somehow kicked Dean behind the knees, causing him to fall backwards. Astonished that a five-foot chick could take him down so easily, and quickly, he stared up at her curious.

"Who are you?" he asked, his pride was bruised, but instead of being furious he was more interested in getting to know who she was.

"I'm the girl who was about to kick your sorry ass to a bloody pulp, but I don't want to kill you just yet, you still have to pay for the scratch you left on my car." Catherine retorted.

Dean, still in awe of the power and spunk the girl had in her, continued to stare curiously. Catherine rolled her eyes and decided to help Dean up. Once she got him on his feet, she held out her hand and introduced herself.

"I'm Catherine Xavier. You are?" Dean shook Catherine's hand, surprised about how strong the handshake was.

"I'm… uh… Dean Winchester." He stammered. Catherine raised an eyebrow before looking towards her room. Mae stood in the doorway, and was tapping her watch on her wrist, it was time to go.

"Alright Dean, I've got to be somewhere, but we should meet out here later or something to talk about how you're going to fix what you've done." Catherine said, turning to leave.

"Uh, ok… is five good with you?" Dean called out. Catherine turned around and said yes before heading into her room without another word.

Sam, who had been listening by the cars the entire time, approached Dean with his hands in his pockets.

"Wow Dean, I never thought I'd ever see the day when you get beat up by a girl." He teased a cheeky grin on his face.

Dean sent Sam an annoyed look before going back into their room.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just suite up and head to Cartwright's house, unless you have any other crazy ladies you want to introduce me to.

Chapter Three

The Impala came to a stop in front of an ordinary looking two-story house. The neighborhood was quiet, and no kids were out playing on the account of the sweltering summer heat.

The boys got out of the car and walked up to Natalie's front door. Sam door belled while Dean got his badge ready. A petite woman with bright red hair and pasty white skin answered the door.

"Hello?" she said, in a quivering voice. Her eyes looked red from crying.

"Good morning ma'am, we're here to talk to you about what happened with your brother." Dean said, as politely as he could. Both him and Sam flashed their false FBI badges. Natalie looked at their badges, before looking behind her for a brief moment.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand. There are already two agents here."

The boys shared confused looks, but Natalie lead the boys in anyway, to get them out of the head.

"I didn't know that the FBI were so interested in lake monster," Natalie said, leading them to the kitchen, "here, the other agents are right this way."

Sam and Dean were ushered into the small kitchen and were shocked to find the girls from the motel sitting at the table, dressed in FBI attire and holding mugs of coffee.

Catherine looked up, and her pleasant smile turned into a frown. Dean returned the look, while Sam and Mae looked at each other awkwardly. Mae stood up and spoke first.

"Hello, I'm agent Bennett, and this is my partner agent Toretto." Mae said, holding out her hand. Sam reached out to shake her hand first, and then Dean did the same.

"Nice to meet you, I'm agent Johnson and this is my partner agent Wilson." Sam said, introducing their fake personas as well.

"I'm afraid there's been a mistake. We were sent here to interview Miss Cartwright. You must have made a mistake." Catherine said, a strain in her voice. Dean continued to glare at her.

"Maybe we should all go outside and discuss this," Dean said, he then turned to Natalie, "I'm sorry Miss Cartwright, we will be back shortly."

The four of them walked out of the hosue, and by the Impala. Dean and Catherine immediately started to argue.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Catherine asked, her hands on her hips.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" Dean retorted. Sam and Mae backed off, and then started to hold their own, quieter, discussion.

"I asked you first!" Catherine said, waiting for Dean to respond.

"I don't have to tell you anything. I bet you're here just to mess with us." Dean accused, pointing a finger at Catherine. She sighed, annoyed.

"Yeah, good job. You solved the case! I'm here just because I wanted to see your stupid ass again." Catherine chuckled as Dean turned red in anger.

"You wanna go for round 2 I won't go easy on you this time." Dean warned.

"Bring it." Catherine said, getting into a fighting stance. Sam cleared his throat and the two of them looked back at Sam and Mae.

"Dean, they're hunters." Sam said, gesturing to the girls.

"You told him!" Catherine asked Mae, shocked that her sister would give away their secret.

"It's ok Cat, so are they." Mae replied.

Dean and Catherine looked at each other, studying the other as if they had just met for the first time.

"No way..." Dean said, in denial.

"Yeah, there's no way this pansy is a hunter." Catherine said, smirking at Dean.

"It's true, I just talked to Sam. They're here to hunt down the lake monster as well." Mae confirmed.

The group stood on the sidewalk awkwardly for a moment before Sam spoke up.

"Well, we never were properly introduced," Sam said, "I'm Sam Winchester, and this is my brother Dean."

"I'm Mae Xavier, this is my sister Catherine." Mae said, gesturing to her and her sister.

"Cat and I have already introduced ourselves." Dean said, Catherine glared at Dean.

"It's Catherine to you, dip shit. Only Mae can call me Cat."

"Whatever you say, Cat."

"Why you..."

"Aright then, what are we gonna do about Natalie? We can't all talk to her." Sam said, trying to bring the group's attention back to the important matters at hand.

"Well, we got word that the guy's body was found by the shore, and that it's at the coroner's office. We were going to stop by and check it out." Mae suggested.

"So, does this mean we're working together?" Catherine said, a little peeved that she would have to work with the boys.

"Yeah, I don't see why not. We can get this done even quicker with four hunters. It'll be a piece of cake." Sam said, glancing over at Dean. Both him and Catherine were crossing their arms over their chests and avoiding each other's glares.

"Why don't Sam and I go check out the body, while you and Dean go back in and talk to Natalie." Mae offered.

"That sounds like a good idea." Sam replied.

"What?! I don't want to be with him!"

"What?! I don't want to be with her!"

Both Catherine and Dean had spoken, or rather yelled, in unison.

"If this is going to work out, you two have to learn how to get along. Here, I will drive with Mae over to the office in the Camaro while you and Catherine use the Impala to meet us up later, alright?" Sam said to Dean. Dean grumbled a "fine" and told Sam to toss him the keys to the Impala. In mid toss, Catherine snatched the keys out of the air.

"What do you think you're doing?" Dean said, seriously. Catherine giggled and began to swing the key ring around her index finger. "You are not driving."

"I'm going to show you how it's done," Catherine turned and started heading to the house. Mae went to go bring the Camaro around. As she pulled up by the boys, she got out of the driver's seat and slid into the passenger side. Before getting behind the wheel of the Camaro, Sam clamped a hand on Dean's shoulder.

"Good luck."

Chapter Four

The interview went fine, and Dean and Catherine got as much info as they could. Once they said their goodbyes to Natalie, they exited the house and approached the car. Catherine ran around the car, opened the door, slid into the driver's seat, and shut the door. Dean heard the lock click.

He frantically began pulling on the door handle, it wouldn't even budge.

"I can't get in!" he said, looking up angrily at Catherine.

"No shit Sherlock, it's locked." Catherine giggled, sitting back into the seat.

Dean stopped yanking on the door and sighed, giving up. "What do you want, Cat?" he asked, exasperated.

"First of all, CATHERINE, second of all, I want you to apologize for scratching Memphis." Dean looked incredulously at Catherine.

"Really? This again? I am NOT apologizing for something that wasn't my fault; and did you just say Memphis? You named your freaking car?"

Catherine raised an eyebrow, "No, I didn't name my car Dean; it just came with the name."

Dean gave Catherine a blank stare, and she sighed, putting the keys in the ignition.

"You don't wanna apologize? Fine by me, I guess I'll just meet you by the coroner's office later then. Have fun walking." Catherine turned on the car and gave it a little gas. Dean panicked and went to stand in front of the Impala.

"Whoa, you can't leave me here! It will take me all day just to walk all the way to the other side of town!"

"Not my problem," Catherine said, sounding unconcerned, "It's up to you. You apologize, and I unlock the car. Otherwise, you're not setting a foot in this car."

Dean sighed, his shoulders sagged, there was no way to beat this chick.

"Fine," he snapped, "I'm sorry for scratching your car!" he said.

Catherine grinned, "That's not his name, Dean." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Oh, come on!"

Catherine shrugged, and slightly pressed on the gas pedal, Dean freaked out once more, placing his hands on the hood of the Impala.

"Jesus Ok, ok, I'm sorry for scratching Memphis. There! You happy?"

Dean heard the car unlock and saw Catherine lean over and push the passenger door open, "Yeah, now I am. You're still paying for it though!"

Dean walked back around to the passenger side door and Catherine patted the seat, ushering him to get in.

He got in, shaking his head, "You sure are a crazy one, Cat." He said. Catherine just laughed, her smile catching his eye.

"Thanks." Catherine said, before driving out into the road.

Dean couldn't help but stare at her, her mouth was still slightly curved in a playful smirk. Her emerald eyes with twinkled with laughter. Dean snapped himself out of his thoughts and looked out the side window. But he still couldn't get Catherine's smiling face out of his head, her laughter continued to ring in his ears, even though the car was silent. He needed to get her out of his head.

"Uh… what kind of music do you listen to?" Dean asked, turning on the radio. Static blasted from the speakers, and he fumbled with the dial to turn down the volume.

"What's wrong with me?" he thought to himself, "why do I feel so nervous all of a sudden?"

"Oh, here, let me find the station I was listening to earlier." Catherine turned the dial and the radio began to speed through different channels.

"Great," Dean thought sarcastically, "she's probably going to turn on Taylor Swift…"

When the sound of guitar riffs and drums filled the car, Dean turned to Catherine, shocked. "You like rock?" Dean asked, surprised. Catherine flashed a smile at Dean and laughed.

"yeah, of course. Why? What did you think I would turn on, Mozart?" Catherine turned her attention back onto the road.

Catherine threw Dean another playful smile, and this time he couldn't take his eyes off her. He had to get to know more about her.

"So, you and your sister, where do you guys come from?" Dean asked, trying to bring up casual conversation.

"We don't really come from anywhere," Catherine said, after thinking for a little while, "For most of our lives we've just sort of lived a hunter's life; traveling from place to place, constantly moving." Catherine glanced at Dean, "What about you?"

"Oh, same here," Dean said, trying not to look too long into Catherine's hypnotic gaze, "Sammy and I just go where we're needed."

Catherine nodded, and turned her attention back to the road. Dean wanted to keep the conversation going but couldn't think of anything. Then he got an idea.

"So, I've never really met a girl that's into cars like you." Dean said, Catherine turned her head and glared at Dean.

"I wouldn't Dean. I'm still upset about you damaging Memphis." Catherine warned. Dean apologized, and it was silent for a few seconds.

"But anyway, I like your taste in cars. This Impala is classic," Catherine said, "If I didn't have Memphis, I would be glad to own this car…"

Dean smiled and listened to Catherine go on and on about her favorite kinds of cars until they were parked in front of the coroner's office building, right next to the Camaro.

"You know Cat, you're not the bitch I thought you were." Dean commented, getting out of the car. Catherine laughed and got out, looking over the hood of the Impala at Dean.

"Yeah, you're not so bad yourself." Catherine said, smiling fondly at Dean.

He watched her shut the driver's side door and walked over to the entrance of the building. Before entering the building, Catherine turned around, glancing over at Dean.

"Well, you coming in, or what?" Catherine asked but Dean didn't answer, even though his eyes were transfixed on her. Catherine raised an eyebrow and shook her head. Once an idiot, always an idiot.

After she went in the door, Dean snapped out of his dream-like state, and hurried towards the door.

"She's going to be the death of me…" Dean thought as he entered the building.

Chapter Five

Meanwhile, Mae and Sam were observing the bloated corpse that was laid out on the examining table before them.

"There's literally, not a scratch on this guy, except for this here," Mae commented, as she gently turned the limp ankle of the corpse which had a deep gnarly wound that circle his shin.

"Well, the report from the lab says that he died from water asphyxiation, so we can rule out any wild animals in the lake trying to eat him." Sam observed, lifting up the victim's arms, trying to find something to go off of.

Mae turned to a table behind her and rummaged through a box of evidence. She pulled out a plastic evidence bag just as Dean and Catherine entered the room.

"Hey guys, so what have you found on good 'ole John here." Dean said, trying to make light of the situation.

"Well, so far, not much," Sam admitted, "We only know that he was dragged under by his legs, and that whatever got a hold of him didn't see him as a snack."

"I may have found something," Mae said, holding a plastic bag up to the light to get a better look, "Cat, come take a look at this."

Catherine went over to Mae, while Dean took this as an opportunity to speak with Sam.

"I think I might be coming down with something." Dean stated, stepping beside Sam.

"What do you mean? You ok?" Sam asked, worried.

"On the ride here, I felt kind of weak in the knees, and my gut started to feel a little funny." Dean said, Sam looked suspiciously at Dean. His brother wasn't even looking at him when he spoke. Sam followed the direction of Dean's gaze and found him staring at Catherine.

"No way…" Sam chuckled, Dean looked at his brother confused.

"What?"

"You like her." Sam teased. Dean's cheeks flushed, and he looked angrily up at Sam.

"I do not," Dean spat, "I think I would know If I was taking a fancy towards someone."

Sam laughed, "Dude, 'take a fancy'?" You're already starting to talk in weird ways. Probably in order to impress her." Sam was enjoying teasing his frustrated and flustered brother, but their conversation was cut short when the girls walked back over to them.

"Alright, we got a sample of everything we need, let's head back to the motel." Catherine said; Mae was holding a few plastic bags and a file.

"Cool, let's get out of here." Sam said, leading the way out of the morgue. Sam and Mae exited the room first, and then Dean held the door open for Catherine to exit.

"I guess chivalry isn't really dead." Catherine remarked, she smiled at Dean as she walked through the door, and he felt his heart skip a beat.

The Camaro pulled up, and parked next to the Impala when the two cars had made it back to the motel. Mae and Sam climbed out of the Camaro, while Dean and Catherine were standing by the Impala, waiting for their siblings.

"Took you guys long enough." Catherine said, Mae rolled her eyes.

"Remind me why I didn't just ride with you in Memphis, and Dean with Sam in the Impala?" Mae asked, Catherine shrugged.

"Dean was the one who suggested it, I just wanted to drive the Impala again."

Mae looked over at Dean, who was looking at Catherine with a dreamy look on his face. She smirked, and then turned back to Catherine, "So, Cat, why do you think he wanted to drive with you?"

Catherine was busy looking through the file they had brought back from the morgue, she looked up, "I don't have the faintest idea why, all I know is once he stop acting like an idiot, he's alright." Catherine shrugged and gathered the pieces of evidence into her arms, "I'll meet you back in the room."

As Catherine walked away, Mae looked back at the boys. Sam had his back turned and was talking to Dean, but Dean's eyes were still on Catherine. Mae giggled and wondered how long it would take for her sister to find out lover-boy over there like her. She decided not to tell Catherine and let her figure it out on her own.

Sam turned around, and approached Mae, looking annoyed.

"Well, Dean isn't being too helpful right now, so why don't we come over to your room to examine the evidence in a few minutes. We are going back to our room to change out of the suites."

Mae nodded, her eyes still watching Dean stare love-struck at Catherine.

"So, when did he start liking her?" Mae asked Sam bluntly, with an amused look on her face. Sam chuckled and sighed.

"So, you noticed?" Sam looked over his shoulder at Catherine who was opening the door to the girls' room, "does she feel the same way?"

Mae shrugged, "Not sure yet. She sure is oblivious to his staring thought."

"Are you gonna tell her?" Sam asked.

"Nah, let the two love birds settle this one out. I'm not getting in the middle of that hot mess." Mae laughed, she said goodbye to Sam and followed her sister into their room.

Sam got Dean to snap out of it, and they headed to their own room to change out of their FBI suites.

Chapter Six

While waiting for Dean to finish changing, who was taking longer than usual, Sam decided to research as much as he could on the area. He also flipped through books, newspapers, and the internet, anything to get a lead on what kind of creature they were dealing with.

He found a couple of sources and information that sounded helpful and made a note to bring his laptop over to the girls' room to show them what he had found. Dean emerged from the bathroom, dressed in his usual unbuttoned flannel shirt with a leather jacket on top. The heavy scent of cologne hit Sam like a brick wall.

"Jesus… did you just dump the whole bottle onto you? How much did you put on?" Sam covered his nose with his sleeve, trying to filter out the intense smell and prevent it from burning his nose.

"I didn't put that much on…" Dean stated, straightening out his attire. He held his arms out and put on his best smile, "Anyway, how do I look?"

Sam stared at Dean, unimpressed. "You look… fine, Dean. Let's just go meet the girls; I think I have a lead on what we're up against."

Dean nodded, and they left without another word. Once they made it to the girls' door, Dean ran his hand through his hair, and checked his breath. Sam rolled his eyes and knocked on the door a couple times.

Mae's voice sounded out from within, "Hold on, I'll be right there." After a few seconds, the door swung open, Mae stood by the door way. Peering inside, the boys saw that the girls had changed as well. They were dressed in similar clothing; Flannel shirts, sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and jeans.

Dean caught sight of Catherine by a mirror in the back of the room, combing her hair. Mae noticed Dean staring once again and stepped between his gaze and her sister.

"So you guys wanted to talk about the stuff we found on the dead guy?" Mae asked bluntly, looking at Dean amused. Dean looked down at Mae, a little peeved about her getting in the way of his line of sight. He cleared his throat and responded.

"Yeah, also, Sammy found some info on what we might be dealing with," him and Sam shared prideful looks, "We think we might know what the creature is already."

Mae crossed her arms, and unimpressed expression on her face, "Oh really? Come in why don't you? Enlighten us." She opened the door wider, and the boys entered the room.

The first thing they noticed was how neat and orderly everything was. Neat stacks of books and files on monsters were placed on the dresser; a new laptop was stationed by the table, a notebook with neat handwritten notes next to it. The beds were made and chairs free of clutter. Sam took a quick glance at a couple notes that were scrawled out on the thick notebook on the table.

"Did you write these notes?" He asked, flipping through the pages. It seemed like they had pages upon pages of notes.

"No, they just dropped out of the sky and into our laps." Catherine commented, sarcastically.

Mae took a seat by Sam at the table, she leaned back and smiled at him, "Yeah, but why don't you go first. I'd like to hear what you got." Catherine put down her brush and walked over to sit beside Mae. She began to fiddle with extra loose-leaf paper that was neatly place beside the stacks of books.

Sam took the final seat at the table and opened his laptop. Dean looked murderously at his brother for taking the last seat and settled for sitting on the bed. Catherine's gaze shot up just before his bottom touched the covers.

"Don't even think about it, I just made those beds." Catherine warned. Dean's eyes narrowed, and he looked around for something to sit on. Finding nothing, he settled with just standing awkwardly next to the girls.

"Alright, this is what we have on the creature," Sam said, scrolling down a few internet pages he had bookmarked on his laptop browser," I first looked up the town's history, and found that there's been deaths by the lake periodically every year since the town's founding. However, lately, there's been a huge increase in people either accidentally drowning or being dragged in by some unknown creature."

Sam looked up at the girls, and found them only half paying attention, Mae was looking at her nails while Catherine was preoccupied with folding pieces of paper. Even Dean was back to his love-struck stare mode. Sam cleared his throat, and everyone returned their attention back to him.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I then looked up a few witness accounts and victim reports. One thing that all the reports had in common is the fact that before every attack, there are always small tremors that can only be felt near the lake. And it only gets weirder, apparently, the water levels of the lake have been steadily increasing this month, and there hasn't been any rain in months." Sam paused, checking to see if the group was still listening. Dean noticed Sam staring and quickly looked back at him, and so did Mae. Catherine didn't bother looking up and continued to crease pieces of paper into triangular shapes. Sam sighed and continued.

"I cross-referenced all the other information I got on sightings near the lake of a huge creature that looked half reptilian, half mammalian, and I got a couple of possible things that it could be. But I think I've figure it out." Sam looked up once more, excited and proud that he had cracked the case. Mae was mysteriously smirking, and Dean was actually paying attention, wanting to know what it was. Catherine still didn't seem to care.

"So get this," Sam said, building up to his revelation, "I think what we are dealing with here, is an Afanc."

Suddenly, a paper airplane made contact with Sam's forehead; he flinched and shot a confused look at Catherine. She flashed him a mischievous smile, and chuckled.

"Congratulations, you've cracked the case!" Catherine teased, Mae gave her sister a look that basically meant go easy on the guy, but Catherine finished her statement, "nice try, but we already know."

"Wait, what do you mean you already know? When did you figure it out?" Dean asked. Mae turned on her laptop and began opening a few windows filled with information on the Afanc.

"We did our homework before we even got here," Mae said, smirking as she scrolled through the endless pages of evidence that the Afanc was residing in the lake; pictures, dates of sightings, victim reports were all organized onto her screen.

"We only interviewed the witness and went to see the corpse to make sure we got the right monster. From what Catherine told me about her interview with Natalie, it sounded just like an Afanc attack. We also got a few samples of Afanc scales and hair found on the body from the morgue."

"Right and you waited until now to tell us." Sam asked, he was slightly annoyed, but also impressed that the girls had been so resourceful and prepared.

"We wanted to see how long it would take you guys to figure out what you were hunting." Catherine commented, before throwing another paper airplane. This time Sam dogged the folded projectile and glared playfully at Catherine.

"Alright, so anyway, since you found out what it was, you probably already know that someone here in town is controlling it, right?" Mae casually brought up a new page showing a picture of a man in his late fifties.

"Hold up, why do you think it is being controlled?" Dean asked, confused.

"Well, did you guys look into the habits of the Afanc?" Mae asked. Dean looked over at Sam, and Sam shook his head. Mae sighed, "Ok, well the Afanc usually never attacks humans unless provoked. For example, in Ireland in the late 1800s, a few men tried to empty out a lake. They were found the next day drowned by the lake after a few earthquakes destroyed the village."

Mae then brought up a new page which showed a picture of a woman with a large, scaly yet furry beast sleeping in her lap. Mae continued with her explanation.

"It's said that the only way to calm down the Afanc, is to have a maiden let it sleep in her lap. It's also less known fact that the Afanc can be basically mind controlled if sung commands by a maiden as well. "Mae paused and brought the picture of the old man up on the screen once more.

"This man, Harley Morton, is a very influential man in town with a small fortune. Apparently, his offer to pay off the town to give him the lake as his own private property was denied. So we think that he is using his wife, Hilary, to control the monster into giving the area a bad rap so that the town will willingly hand the lake over to him."

Dean and Sam sat still for a moment, letting everything sink in. Dean was the first to speak.

"So what you're saying is that Mr. Monopoly over there wants to have the lake all to himself, but decided to get it Scooby-doo villain style." Dean asked, Mae nodded.

"However, we aren't positive that it's Mr. Morton. So we were planning on crashing a wine tasting and art show being held in his mansion in a few days, in order to talk to him and take a look around his house for clues." Catherine added, Dean nodded, and then offered to tag along.

"Well, we could use the extra help to scout the area, we researched the premises and it's pretty heavily guarded." Mae said, "Alright. We will all head out together to the party as dates, so we don't seem suspicious."

The group agreed quietly, but then collectively did a double take and stared incredulously at Mae.

"Did you say 'dates'?" Sam asked, Catherine looked dumbfounded at her sister.

"I do NOT need anyone to escort me while on a hunt; I can do just fine at the party on my own."

"Yeah Cat, I have no doubt that you can. It would just be less suspicious and plus we could get to mingle with Morton more personally if he sees that we actually play the part." Mae said. Sam gave in and agreed that it would be a good idea. Dean was pretty willingly as well, and finally Catherine accepted the idea. It was agreed that Dean would pose as Catherine's date, and Sam as Mae's.

"Alright, it's settled. This way, we won't seem as conspicuous." Dean said, everyone turned to look at him.

"Really Dean, 'conspicuous'?" Sam said. Mae and Catherine struggled not to laugh, as Dean gave Sam a long angry stare.

After a little discussion on their plan of scouting the area, Catherine lead Dean over to a drawer where she kept a few handmade, personal guns that she had created to be especially effective in shooting rock salt. After she had dragged Dean out of earshot, Mae and Sam began to hold their own conversation.

"So, do you think she feels the same way yet?" Sam asked jokingly. Mae was typing their plan onto her laptop but looked up and smiled.

"I don't think so. Maybe she will at the party."

Sam laughed, "I bet you five dollars she does later today." he flipped through a couple pages of the insanely thick notebook that had notes on the Afanc.

"How did you guys know so much on the Afanc? I searched everywhere and could only find little things here and there on it." Sam asked, skimming through carefully written notes on vampires in the notebook.

"Oh, I just used the Guide," Mae said, referencing the book that Sam was leafing through, he flipped the hard cover closed and saw the word 'GUIDE' printed over it in elegant writing, a few symbols lining the side. "It has a bunch of information on thousands of monsters my family has encountered. My grandmother started it, and it's just been passed down through every generation. I'm still adding to it actually."

Sam nodded, and then looked up at the glowing screen of the Mae's laptop, "Why don't you just put it all in your laptop. Wouldn't that be easier?"

Mae finished typing and shut the lid of the computer, "Yeah, but it's not the same. Plus, data can be easily deleted or stolen digitally." She took the Guide from Sam and smiled fondly as she flipped through the pages that had been written by her parents, "this way I can always have all the information I need with me."

"Well, I dunno about you guys, but I'm starving." Dean said, he was holding a silver pistol that Catherine had put together a while back.

"Yeah, same here, and I could also go for a drink. Why don't we go out to the nearest bar?" Sam offered. The girls agreed, and they all went out into the parking lot. Dean convinced everyone to take the Impala, so Catherine and Mae moved to enter the back of the car.

Dean was about to offer Catherine the passenger seat, but Sam had already taken his seat and was smiling mischievously up at Dean.

"What's wrong Dean? Is there a problem?" He asked. Dean ignored his idiot brother and slid into the driver's seat. The Impala drove out of the parking lot and towards the middle of town, as the group searched for a bar.

Chapter Seven

The group had found a bar in town, just before sunset. They entered the bar and took a seat at a table. The dim light of the room made the room seem cozy, and they all began to unwind as they drank beer and chatted about their plan. Mae had brought her laptop and was going over the blueprints of the Morton Mansion to get their plan of attack perfected.

Catherine and Dean were speaking, but Catherine looked over at Mae and shook her head, "Mae, you should have left your laptop back at the room. We can relax for a little while without working you know."

Mae looked up and raised an eyebrow, "Morton's house is under heavy security, I don't want anyone to get hurt." Catherine shrugged and went back to talking to Dean.

"Yeah Mae, you shouldn't do any extraneous work, you should just enjoy yourself." Dean smiled, taken a sip of his beer. Catherine looked at Dean amused. He looked over at Sam, who had a look of disbelief on his face. Sam mouthed the word 'extraneous?' at Dean, Dean shrugged, mouthing 'I don't know.'

The waitress approached the table and placed down a plate with a burger and a side of fries out in the middle of the table. "I have a barbeque-bacon cheeseburger here." She said and left.

Both Catherine and Dean reached out for the burger at the same time, their hands touched, and Catherine looked up in surprise. She found herself staring into Dean's deep green eyes and couldn't pull her gaze away. His voice suddenly brought her back down to earth.

"Um, this is my order." Dean said, he also stared into Catherine's eyes, the two began to blush.

"Uh, no. I ordered the burger." Catherine said, attempting to seem irate, but she found herself feeling a bit weightless; butterflies began to flutter in her stomach.

Suddenly the waitress appeared back by their side, holding another plate with the same order on it. "Sorry, I forgot this. Enjoy!" Catherine and Dean both nervously laughed and began eating their burgers, trying not to look too long into each other's eyes.

Sam and Mae exchange looks. Without saying a word, Mae reached into her pocket and brought out a five-dollar bill and handed it to Sam under the table.

"How did you know?" Mae asked, unused to being proved wrong by someone. Sam laughed. "I just knew."

The group had finished their dinner at the bar and then headed back to the motel, the evening sky was now a turning a bright orange and everyone was laughing, and the mood was light. They all headed to the boys' room just to hang out before they retired for the night.

"…So anyway. I go to grab my gun, and Sam is over there struggling with the dress. It was hilarious!" Dean laughed, he was sitting on the bed and the girls were seated at a couch. Sam stood by the table not amused at the embarrassing story being told about him.

Dean wiped tears out of his eyes as his laughter began to slow. Mae went to speak with Sam, and Catherine went to listen as well. Dean to this opportunity to go to the bathroom and freshen up before asking Catherine to go on an evening walk with him. He walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

Just as he finished washing his face, he stood up straight from leaning over the porcelain sink, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a stoic face behind him reflected in the mirror.

"Goddammit Cas…" Dean turned around, and was a few feet away from his angel friend, "what did I say about personal space?"

"I'm sorry Dean, but I felt the need to visit you." Castiel said, Dean looked at him confused.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you Cas, you can stop by anytime, but what did you need to see me for?"

"The woman you spoke with earlier today, Natalie, she was praying for her brother. I was listening to her prayers and noticed that you had seen her. I figured whatever you and Sam were interested in would be urgent, and I thought I would help."

Dean sighed and clamped a hand on Castiel's shoulder, "Look, we don't really need any help. We have plenty of people working on this one, but you're still welcome to stay if you want."

Castiel agreed to stay since he didn't have anything else to do anyway and walked with Dean out into the room.

The girls looked up and were shocked to see another man walk with Dean out of the bathroom, Catherine's hand hovered over her hip ready to grab the gun holstered on her side; Mae also went to reach for the knife that was strapped to her belt.

They were both shocked even more when Sam casually greeted Castiel without even looking up.

"Hey Cas," Sam said, typing on his laptop, "What's up?"

"…Heaven." Castiel stated seriously, Sam looked up, and awkwardly nodded. Even if he had known Castiel for a while, he still wasn't used to his angel logic.

"Who is this guy? What is he?" Catherine asked. She looked at Dean demanding an answer; the stranger was giving her a weird vibe.

"This is our buddy Castiel," Dean said, introducing Castiel to the girls.

Castiel looked at the girls and tried to look as friendly as possible, however to Catherine and Mae he still looked stoic, "I'm an angel of the lord." Castiel said, explaining what he was.

Catherine raised an eyebrow, "Well, that explains why you just popped out of thin air, or maybe Dean was hiding you in the bathroom this whole time." Dean sent Catherine a look, and she looked back at him mockingly. The two began to talk.

Mae and Castiel were both staring curiously at each other. Sam got up and stood beside Mae.

"So, did you guys know about heaven and angels being real before this?" he asked her.

Mae looked up at Sam, "We knew about demons and hell, so we guessed that heaven and angels had to exist as well. But we've never seen an angel before."

Castiel advanced closer to the girls and Sam.

"Well, I'm honored to be the first angel you've meet. I'm known to be the most congenial angel in my garrison." Cas said, shaking Mae's hand.

He tried to seem as casual as possible, for some reason, he felt very… strange around this human. What was this feeling he felt? He wondered if his vessel had been compromised in some way.

Mae also felt a bit weird at the sight of the angel, the first time their eyes made contact, she suddenly felt lost in his brilliant blue eyes. Even though the expression he wore made him look emotionless on the outside, she felt like she could see his emotions expressed through the sparkle in his eyes.

"Oh God…" she thought, "…I'm falling for him…"

They both suddenly realized they had been shaking hands silently for a couple minutes without saying anything, and Sam was staring at them confused and suspicious. Their hands retracted quickly, and Mae turned around to hide the blush on her cheeks and went by Catherine's side. Castiel continued to look at Mae, began to speak to Sam.

"What relations to these girls have with you and Dean?" he asked, his gruff voice its usual gravely tone.

"I guess you could say we literally ran into them on the way here. They're hunters. We decided to work together on this one," Sam noticed Castiel hadn't even looked at him once and was still watching Mae. Mae, meanwhile, would glance over every once in a while, but tried to hide it. Sam smiled; first Dean and Catherine, and now Cas and Mae?

"So, Cas, do you think you will leave soon? Or…"

"I would like to stay here and help any way I can." Castiel responded quickly.

"Okay, I'll clear the couch for you. I know you don't sleep, but you could at least lie down tonight. It freaks Dean out when you stand there and watch us sl…" Sam started to say but was interrupted by Castiel.

"I think I would like to stay with them." Castiel said. Sam suddenly realized that Castiel probably didn't know how to deal with the way he was feeling. He needed to watch out for him, and make sure he didn't creep the girls out.

"Look, Cas, I know how you feel about Mae." Sam said, placing a hand on Castiel's shoulder. Castiel looked up at Sam, alarmed.

"You know what is happening to me? What is it? Is there something wrong with my vessel?"

"No… Cas, you're falling for Mae."

"… Sam I think we've already established the fact that I fell from heaven far before I meet Mae."

Sam sighed. He forgot that Castiel also wasn't familiar with human slang.

"Cas, I meant that you are in love with Mae."

Castiel looked back at Mae, he caught her looking back at him and she quickly turned around. Castiel's eyes narrowed in confusion, "So, this is what humans feel when they are in love?"

"Yeah, and I think she feels the same way." Sam said, Castiel looked back at Sam, excited.

"So, does this mean we are now… together?"

"No Cas, that's not exactly how it works," Sam gave Castiel a reassuring smile, "I know you aren't the best at acting smooth, so I'll help you with getting to know her first. I'll be your wing man."

Castiel looked at Sam puzzled, his head tilted to the side, "But I already have wings, Sam. I thought that was obvious to the fact that I am an angel."

Sam face palmed, "Look, I'm just here to help you not freak her out, ok?" Castiel nodded.

"That means you have to stay here for the night, you can't stay in the girl's room." Castiel nodded again, and the two began to talk about what to do and what not to do when courting human girls.

Chapter Eight

That evening, after all the excitement had died down, the girls bid the boys goodnight and left to go retire to their room. Meanwhile, Sam was left to deal with two love-struck boys who didn't seem to know what to do with themselves.

"Hey Sammy, what do you think Cat thinks of me?" Dean asked casually, as Sam got ready for bed.

"Do you have feelings for Catherine, Dean?" Castiel asked bluntly, he was sitting on the couch, his hands folded in his lap.

"What?! Why do you say that?" Dean said, the pitch in his voice seemed to go up a note, and he cleared his throat and looked at Castiel trying to feign confusion.

"Every time you were around her, your eyes would remain upon her. You also would use vocabulary that seemed extravagant to your usual mannerisms." Castiel said, glancing up at Dean.

"Give me three good examples." Dean demanded, he wasn't about to be seen as a weak for falling in love.

"In one night, you've used the words: bombastic, acquiesce, extemporizing, repudiate, discalceated, excubitorium…"

"Oh come on! I don't even know what those last few mean…" Dean said; there was no way he said those words.

"Well, you did say them, Dean," Sam said as he fluffed his pillows, "We both know you love her. It wasn't that hard to figure out."

Dean opened his mouth to oppose the accusation that he had fallen for Catherine, but instead he let out an exasperated sigh, "Do you think she knows?"

Sam sat on his bed, and smiled at his brother, "I dunno, but she doesn't seem to pay any attention to your staring at her…" Sam replied.

"It is strange seeing you act this way, Dean. In the few years that I've known you, I have never seen you act so… foolishly out of love." Castiel said, and for a moment he smiled, his stoic mask breaking.

"Don't act so scot-free Cas, I also happen to know you have something going on with Mae." Dean spat, "I saw you going all googly eyed staring at her across the room."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Castiel sputtered, his cheeks blushed. Sam sighed.

"You both are hopeless." He said before sliding into bed and turning his back towards the two boys in denial.

"Whatever, he's just jealous that he 'ain't getting any action." Dean mumbled to Cas. Castiel looked up at Dean, not understanding the lingo and Sam turned around angrily at them.

"Just get to bed, Dean. The girls said that we were all going shopping tomorrow for clothes for the Morton event. We leave tomorrow at eight, since the nearest mall is a few hours away." With that, Sam turned back around in a huff.

Dean shrugged and climbed into bed, Castiel decided to lie down on the couch, and stared up at the ceiling. He began to think.

"Dean?" he asked.

Dean groaned, and whispered a response, "What?!"

"Do you think Mae and Catherine feel the same way for us?"

Dean thought for a moment, and then sighed, "I dunno. All I know is we gotta keep our cool. You know, be suave."

Castiel's eyes narrowed the dark, he didn't quite understand how to be suave, and hopefully Sam would be successful in helping him.

"Anyway, try to get some shut eye Cas. We got a big day ahead of us."

Castiel didn't bother reminding Dean that he didn't need to sleep, because soon after loud snoring began to drift from Dean's direction. Cas laid still and spent the night thinking about how exactly he got himself into this.

The next morning, after everyone had gotten dressed and eaten a quick breakfast, the boys entered the Impala, while the girls followed them closely behind in Memphis. On the ride to the mall, Sam went over normal human etiquette with Cas, while Dean drove and focused on the road. Every once in a while, he would look into the rearview mirror and glance at the blue Camaro that trailed behind them.

When they arrived in the mall parking lot, they both parked beside each other, and walked to the entrance of the mall in a large group. They decided it would be best to find the boys' outfits first, since they would need the most help.

They first entered a Men's Wearhouse. Catherine took Dean by the arm and led him over to a rack that displayed dapper blue and black suites. Mae took Sam and Cas over to another rack of suits.

"I don't see why we can't just use our FBI suits…" Dean said as Catherine searched through a pile of collared shirts. In her arms, she held a suit the same dark shade as the Impala, and a blue tie. She pulled out a white collared dress shirt and then loaded the pile of clothing into Dean's arms.

"Your FBI stuff smells like police stations and death. It's prime time you guys get proper suits." She ushered him into a changing room, and waited outside the door, her hands on her hips and her foot tapping.

Meanwhile, Mae had gotten Sam to try on a grey suit and a maroon tie. Sam exited the changing room, and Mae smiled and complimented him on how gentlemanly he looked. She then piled a dark suit with a dark blue collared dress shirt and a black tie. She led him to the changing room and waited outside the door. Suddenly Cas called for Mae from inside.

"Um… I don't understand how to tie this around my neck." Castiel said, he opened the door dressed in his suit with the tie hanging limply and untied around his neck. Mae's breath was taken away at how handsome he looked, and blushed as she helped him tie the tie. Castiel looked at her, a puzzled look on his face. She seemed so nervous.

"There, done." Mae said, as she straightened out the jacket of Cas' outfit.

"Mae!" Catherine called to them from across the room. They all looked in Catherine's direction, she was holding out her hands, presenting the Dean in his suit, "doesn't he clean up nicely?"

Dean sent Catherine an annoyed look, but it was quickly replaced with a fond smile when Catherine giggled and began to fix his tie.

"Sam and Cas look pretty good too." Mae told Catherine as both her and Dean approached the three standing by.

Dean whistled, "Looking good Sammy; and Cas, I never thought I would see you in anything other than your trench coat."

"Yeah, he looks… uh…" Mae stammered, stopping herself, and glanced up at Castiel, "good."

"Thank you." Castiel said, staring into Mae's eyes. Blue meet green, and Mae looked down, her cheeks flushed.

The boys changed back into their casual clothes, and they went to the check-out counter and paid for their suits. Once they exited the store, Catherine took Mae by the hand, and began walking swiftly towards a store with long gowns in the display window.

"Alright guys, now it's time for you to help us pick out something to wear." She laughed and tugged her sister along at her fast pace, and the boys began to fast walk in order to keep up with them.

The girls disappeared into the store, and when the boys rounded the corner to the wide entrance of the dress shop, they couldn't spot them among the tall, dense racks of dresses. The shop was small and cramped, the aisles between the racks could only fit one person, and the changing stations were at the back.

"… I guess I'll look for Cat, and you guys look for Mae?" Dean said, looking dismally around the shop.

"Uh, actually," Sam said, he grinned at Castiel, "I think I'm going to head out to the food court to get something to drink. So I guess you should go look for Mae."

Dean stopped and grinned back at Castiel, "Good thinking Sammy. Come on Cas, let's go find them." Dean started into the shop, and Castiel looked back at Sam, looking nervous.

Sam raised an eyebrow and gestured to the shop, almost as if to say 'go on'. Castiel sighed and followed Dean in.

Wading through the dense aisles of silk gowns, Dean pressed on through the shiny fabrics and dozens of price tags. He thought he saw movement up ahead, so he pushed on faster. However, as he moved closer to the figure up head, he found himself coming face to face with the store's clerk, an elderly Asian woman who smiled and grinned and showed him a dress.

Dean smiled back, and backed away, he needed to find Cat. Every turn he took, he found that he couldn't find a sign of the quirky brunette. 10 minutes later, he sighed and stopped in the middle of an aisle that had long, fancy gowns.

"Damn… is she **trying** to hide from me?" he thought. Suddenly a hand pulled him through a rack of clothing.

"There you are! I was looking for you." Catherine smiled, she led Dean out into a clear area where the clothes were at least a foot away from them. He laughed and shook his head.

"I was the one looking for you, Cat," he sighed, he suddenly noticed that Cat had on a red gown, with straps that laid on the sides of her shoulders. His breath was taken away by the way she looked stunning in the ruby red dress, and he didn't even notice that she was still talking.

"…and I thought you were a hunter." he heard Catherine say. He looked up and smiled.

"Well, it's like a jungle in here. How did you find me?" He said, he was still in awe of how she looked.

"I'm not telling you…" Catherine said, as she turned around to display the way the dress moved when she moved, "anyway, how do I look?"

"You, you look….uh…. amazing." He stammered, his cheeks turning red when she made eye contact with him as he stared in wonder. A thousand words came to his mind, but he just couldn't get them to come out of his mouth.

"Right…" She said, she watched as he began to divert his eyes, trying not to make his blush not obvious. A thought came to her mind, but she put it aside, she would need to watch the way he acted around her for a while first.

"I wonder how Cas and Mae are doing," Dean said, suddenly his eyes widened, "did Mae just go into the dressing room?"

"Yeah… why?" Catherine asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We gotta go find Cas…" Dean said, taking Catherine's hand. Once her hand made contact with his, she suddenly felt light headed, her knees becoming weak. She looked up at Dean, he was leading her somewhere. She didn't really care, she just wanted him not to let go of her hand.

Meanwhile, Mae was locked in one of the dressing rooms, and was tying the ribbon to the front of her emerald green dress. It had one strap for one shoulder, and a ribbon around her waist. She fixed the fabric of the bottom of the dress, pressing and pulling on it. She hoped Castiel was impressed by the dress.

Suddenly, a gruff yet gentle voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"You look… beautiful."

She gasped and quickly turned on her heel, her hands went for the knife that she kept strapped to her thigh. When Castiel came into her line of sight she sighed out of relief, and her hands dropped to her side.

She put her hands on her hips, "Cas, what are you doing in here? This is the girl's dressing room. I could have been naked." She scolded light heartedly. However, Castiel took the reprimanding seriously and blushed, he was ashamed that he had done something to cause her discomfort. He looked at his feet in humility and apologized.

"It's fine Cas, I was just about done anyway, so no harm done. I know that being an angel in a human world is pretty hard. Sam told me about how angels aren't really used to the way humans act." Castiel's head shot up and looked at her shocked.

"What else did Sam tell you about me?"

"Uh, not really anything else. Just that you could be pretty awkward sometimes, but overall, you're a really good guy," Mae said, Castiel sighed in relief, Mae smiled at him, "yeah, but so… you really think I look beautiful?"

Castiel smiled, "You look lovely, as gorgeous as the skies of heaven."

Mae blushed, and turned around to look at herself in the mirror, "Well, then I guess I'll look pretty good at that party then…" Castiel nodded gave her a fond smile. Their eyes locked, and she found herself lost in his clear blue eyes that seemed to be the same exact color as the sky. He was also staring into her forest green eyes, which seemed as green as the dress that she wore.

Suddenly, outside Dean's voice was calling for Castiel. Mae and Castiel shared a confused look before they both excited the changing room.

"Cas!" Dean said, as he saw him walk out the door with Mae, "What the hell man? You went into her dressing room?"

Catherine was in a dreamy state, gazing at Dean, but upon hearing that Castiel might had been watching her sister.

"You were watching her change? I know you are an angel, but I don't give a crap. I'll still drop kick your winged ass back up to heaven if you were creeping on her…"

"It's ok, Cat," Mae insisted, "I was already done. I just asked Cas to come in to see how I looked."

Castiel looked down at Mae, surprised that she had lied to get him out of trouble. She glanced up and sent him a covert wink. Cas felt his heart flutter for a moment.

"Well, as long as he didn't see anything, he didn't need to see…" Catherine said, calming down, "Sorry I yelled at you Cas."

"It's alright, I should have known better." Castiel contended. The group shared a couple laughs about the whole ordeal, and soon Sam joined them. He apparently had no trouble finding them, to which Dean was confused that his brother could find them so quickly.

They paid for the dresses and left the shop and then the mall. On the car ride home, in the Impala, the boys were sharing stories about their encounters with the girls. Castiel had told them about how Mae had lied for him, and how he felt that they now hand a 'special bond.'

Dean on the other hand, still couldn't quite convey how he felt when he saw Catherine in the slim red dress. "She was… well… you know…"

"Looks like lover boy is speechless." Sam teased. Castiel smiled in the back seat, while Dean sent his best annoyed glare towards Sam.

"Shut up Sam."

Chapter Nine

As the Impala pulled into the Lumberjack Motel's parking lot, they found that Memphis had already made it back before them. The girls were waiting outside, by the trunk of the Camaro. Sam parked next to them, and Dean and Castiel rushed to get out of the car.

"Took you boys long enough." Catherine teased, Dean smirked.

"How did you guys get ahead of us?"

"I just know how to drive, that's all." Catherine laughed, and Dean smiled, enjoying the sound of her laughter.

"Hey, let's all head inside, I think we all need to get familiar with the plan for the party tomorrow." Mae said, she began to walk towards the girls' room.

The rest of the group followed her in, and they all took a seat or stood around the round table that had her laptop on it. On the screen, there was a blue print of the Morton Mansion, with different X's placed in different rooms. In another window on the screen, was a file that had different pictures of various people.

"Okay, so from what Sam and I have gathered, we have pin pointed different rooms that might have things that will help us figure out if he is really controlling the Afanc," Mae pointed out several of the X's, one was in what looked like a guest bedroom, and another in a small library. The rest of the X's were scattered around in random rooms, "These people here, are people that we should take time to talk to and see if we can get anything out of them."

"So we get in, snoop around and mingle, then get the hell out." Sam clarified; the rest of the group nodded and began to study the faces of the people on the screen.

"We all know that we obviously have to talk to Harley Morton himself, but we also want to interview: Rebecca Morton, his wife; Laney Stanton, his secretary; and Elizabeth Reynolds, the person in charge of his finances. We also need to keep his manager of security, Richard Felton, busy. Same with the rest of these faces, which are all security." Sam said, pointing to each face as he described who they were.

Everyone studied each face, making sure to remember names as well as appearances. Mae then spoke up.

"Now, we all know who we are going with as 'dates' right?" everyone nodded, except Castiel. "We are going in pairs?" he asked.

"Yup, Dean is going with Catherine," Sam responded, "and I'm going with… Mae." He slowly realized what he had just said to Castiel, who was looking at him with a betrayed expression. This look was not picked up by Mae, and she continued to explain.

"Yeah, and it's good that you decided to help Cas, since you would be perfect for recon to the rooms while the rest of us go and mingle with the people at the party. You could just transport right into each room, and snoop around."

Castiel tried not to show his disappointment, and instead began to glare at Sam, who was nervously trying to think of a way to explain this to the angry angel later. Dean was watching intently, and Catherine was just as oblivious to the tension as Mae was.

"Well, now that we all know what we're doing tomorrow, why don't we all go out for a drink?" Catherine offered, Dean smiled at her and told her it was a great idea.

"Actually, I think I'm going to stay here and get our supplies ready for when we're ready for the Afanc," Mae said, she turned to Sam and Cas, "You guys are welcome to join me if you don't want to head out."

"Yeah, I think I'll stay back to. I want to see what you have for us to kill it." Sam said, then everyone turned to Castiel, waiting for him to respond.

"I will go with Catherine and Dean," Castiel said, not looking at Mae, "It seems like Sam has it covered here, I am not needed to stay here."

Mae looked at Cas questioningly, and Sam cut in to try and relieve the tension and agreed. With that, Catherine, Dean, and Castiel loaded into the Impala and promptly left, leaving Sam and a confused Mae behind.

"Did I say something that offended him?" Mae said dejectedly, she turned towards Sam, feeling a bit hurt that Castiel was so angry with her.

"It's not you, Mae, in fact, I think it's more about what I did," Sam explained, she looked at him confused and he sighed, "never mind that for now, let's just get to what we have to kill the Afanc."

"Alright," Mae said, trying to get her mind off the angry angel, "Well, like I already told you, the only kind of person who can control the Afanc is a maiden, preferable one with a good singing voice since it can be controlled by a maiden's song. From the lore that I have read up on, once it's distracted or falls asleep in a maiden's lap, it can be killed by being chained up in iron and then beheaded. Also, if it helps to weaken it by stabbing it with a branch from the woods it resides in."

Sam nodded, taking in all of the information, and Mae continued, "We have to be careful though. In one legend, the Afanc thrashed around in a maiden's lap once it realized it was chained up and crushed her on the spot. It is also known to cause floods and is invisible and has a poisonous bite. The only way we can see it, is if we use this seeing stone."

Mae reached into her pocket and brought out a round stone, with a large hole in the middle. Around the edges, it had some sort of spell written in white chalk.

"Where did you find this?" Sam asked, examining the seeing stone.

"Catherine and I made it. I looked up the spell and she carved the stone. We only made one though, so the person who is going to behead it has to use it," Mae went to the back of the room and brought out a big duffle bag, and unzipped it, inside was a few branches and an axe, "before we checked into the motel, we stopped by the old logging mills and picked up a few old forest branches. We also brought along our old trusty axe." She smiled and picked up the axe and ran her finger lightly across the edge.

"This axe was passed down from our parents," she paused and soon her thoughts were diverting back to Castiel, Sam frowned and took the axe from her hands, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, it's nothing… I just…" Mae sighed, and sat down on the bed, "I hope I haven't done anything to push Cas away. We were getting so close today and I just…"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure he will be over it as soon as he gets back." Sam said, he was going to have a talk with Castiel once they got back.

Meanwhile, Castiel was with Catherine and Dean at the bar they had visited the other day and was staring down at his plate. Catherine and Dean were chatting happily and laughing at each other's jokes. They were seated on the outdoor porch of the bar, and were all admiring the serene night time atmosphere, and looking up at the stars.

"Okay, okay, so anyway, back to you and your brother," Catherine said, toning down her laughter, "you guys were brought up the same way we were? Raised on the road, hunting from town to town?"

"Yup," Dean said, taking a swig from his beer, "I've pretty much raised Sammy ever since we were kids. We just traveled around with our Dad, ever since our Mom…" Dean paused, and looked down, and smiled uncomfortable. Catherine smiled sympathetically and placed a hand on his hand; he looked up and smiled fondly.

"It's ok, I understand. We started out with hunting with both of our parents, but then after an accident we became a hunting family of three," Catherine began to tell the story about how her mother was lost on a hunting trip gone wrong, and how her father never got over it and disappeared after Catherine was old enough to take care of Mae.

"Do you miss them?" Dean asked.

She held up her hand and showed a gold ring with a blood red jewel sparkling in the center, "After my sister and I began to participate in the family business, my mom gave my sister and I rings. Mine is ruby, and Mae's is an emerald. Whenever we look at them, we're reminded of them."

Dean nodded and held Catherine close.

"You see Dean, we aren't very different." She said, once she finished her story. Dean nodded.

"You got that right."

They scooted closer, and she laid her head on Dean's shoulder. Dean's heartbeat quickened, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They sat in a comfortable silence, enjoying the feeling of being close together, until Castiel spoke.

"Do you think Mae has… feelings for Sam?"

The two of them turned surprised towards Castiel, "What are you talking about Cas?" Dean asked.

"Do you think Mae has feelings for Sam?" Castiel asked again, this time more irate. Dean's eyes narrowed in confusion. Catherine decided to respond.

"Cas, I don't think she does. We both think that Sam is more of a brother, if anything."

"Maybe he has feelings for her then…maybe he really isn't helping me…" Castiel muttered.

"What was that?" Dean asked.

"Nothing," Castiel said, standing up, "I will be on my way, I have to attend to something for a moment."

"Wait, Cas…" Dean said, getting up, but before he could finish speaking there was the sound of fluttering wings, and Cas had disappeared.

Chapter Ten

Catherine and Dean arrived back at the motel, and Sam and Mae left the room and met them in the parking lot. Mae was confused when she saw that Castiel wasn't with them.

"Where's Cas?" Sam asked, as they all congregated by the Impala.

"He, uh, had to take off and take care of something real quick." Dean said, he had an arm around Catherine, and she was standing comfortably in his arm.

"Oh." Was all Mae said, Catherine noticed the disappointed look in Mae's eyes. She put a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"It'll be alright. I'm sure he'll be back soon. He probably had to run some angel errands, or whatever it is that angels do."

Mae nodded, and then bid everyone good night before heading back to the room by herself. Catherine looked up at Dean, with a concerned look on her face. He sighed and held Catherine closer.

"Right now, what we all have to focus on is the party. We have to get our game faces on and start focusing on what we are really here for." Dean said, speaking to Catherine and Sam. They both silently agreed.

"Yeah, so then I guess I'm going to get to bed. See you tomorrow." Sam said, waving to Catherine as he walked back to the boys' room. That left Dean and Catherine alone in the parking lot, the crickets in the distance chirping softly and the stars above twinkling in the dark expanse of the night time sky.

"Well, I should go in and check on Mae, see how she's doing." Catherine said, about to leave Dean's arms, but he pulled her back, and held her in front of him. She blinked in surprise.

"Cat, wait…I gotta tell you something,"

Dean stared into Catherine's eyes, with an earnest, yet gentle look on his face; she dazed back, her heart stopping from how handsome he looked in the moonlight. "Cat, I know that we've only known each other for a few days, but I've got to let you know, I care about you."

Catherine smiled, and reached up to cup Dean's face in her palm, "I care about you too."

Dean grinned and placed his hand on hers; so that both of their hands rested on his check, "I know, but, it's just…" he gently took her hand from his face, and held it with both of his, "I don't want us to go our separate ways after this."

"I don't either." Catherine smiled; Dean chuckled and carefully tucked a lock of stray hair behind her ear. She blushed and looked down.

"Look, I'm not very good at talking about my feelings, but…" Dean said, he tipped Catherine's chin up so that she was now gazing into Dean's eyes, "I think… I think that I love you."

Catherine felt her heart jump five feet out of her chest, she was suddenly at a loss of words. She struggled to respond quickly, "I…uh… I love you too." She stammered.

Suddenly, she felt Dean pressing his lips against hers. Fireworks shot out in her head, her knees weakened and the butterflies in her stomach began to go wild. She relaxed into the kiss and threw her arms around his neck.

They paused for air, she could feel his hot breath on her face as they smiled out in the nighttime atmosphere.

" So, 'get our game faces on', right?" Catherine said, as she leaned back, grinning at Dean.

"Yup. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can leave this town." Dean said, smiling back at Catherine.

"Well, I think it's prime time we go to bed now, Bean." Catherine smirked, Dean raised an eyebrow at Catherine.

"Bean?"

"Yeah, you won't stop calling me Cat, so from now on, you're Bean," Catherine slowly slipped out of Dean's embrace, until he was only holding her hand, "Night Bean."

Dean leaned down and kissed her hand, and smiled back at her, "Night Cat." He let go, and she winked before heading back to her room. He stood in the parking lot alone and waited for her to shut the door to the room. He let out the breath he had been holding the entire time and leaned up against the Impala.

"Damn…" he said to himself, as he smiled like a fool out in the dark parking lot. He locked the Impala, and then started back for his room, his heart racing.

When Catherine made it into her room, she found the main room empty. Then, after standing for a moment in silence, she heard soft sobs coming from the bathroom.

"Mae?" Catherine called, walking closer to the bathroom door.

"I'm fine." A muffled voice called out from inside the bathroom. Catherine heard a couple sniffles and running water, before Mae opened the door. Her eyes were red and swollen.

Catherine promptly pulled Mae in for a hug, and Mae buried her face in her sister's shoulder.

"He'll be back, Mae, I know it. I can feel it in my bones." Catherine said, as she led them over to the bed.

"His clothes are gone" Mae said, "He took his suit. It's not here, so he isn't coming back…" Catherine handed her a tissue and she sniffled and blew.

"I just hope that I haven't done anything to make him leave, you know how I feel about him. I told you last night." Mae said between deep breaths.

Catherine pulled her sister in for another hug, and patted her back gently, "I know sis, I know. Just hang in there. I've seen the way he looks at you. He feels the same way. So he'll come back."

The girls sat there until Catherine got Mae to calm down, they then got ready for bed and turned off the lights.

Tomorrow, they were visiting the Morton estate.

Chapter Eleven

The next morning, Catherine blinked open her eyes, and looked over at the digital clock by the night stand. It read "7:00 A.M." Glancing over at Mae's bed, she found it made and empty. She quickly turned around towards the window, and sure enough, Mae was standing there, staring out the window and at the passing cars outside on the main road. She had a mug in hand, the steam from the cup was curling upward, the air inside the room was icy cold.

"Why's it so cold?" Catherine asked, she rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"I talked to the front desk; they said the power went out in the middle of the night," Catherine turned around and let out a halfhearted smile, "good morning."

"Morning." Catherine murmured, as she sat up. Mae grabbed a newspaper and another mug on the table and handed them both to Catherine. Catherine took the mug in one hand and began to take a careful sip of the warm coffee. She held out the newspaper in front of her. Her eyes narrowed.

"The lake rose ten feet over the three days we were here?" Catherine asked, skimming over the article on the front page.

"Yup. The Afanc is starting to get active again," Mae started to slip on her brown boots, "I was thinking about it, and we should check out the lake once before we head to the party. Take a look around."

Catherine looked at her sister for a moment, usually; Catherine was the one who called the shots, being the older sibling and all. Mae rarely took charge, and when she did, she was doing it to get her mind off something.

"Yeah… ok, sure." Catherine agreed, and began to get ready for the day, "should I call the guys and invite them to join."

"Yeah, that would be a good idea." Mae said, Catherine looked back at her.

"Should I… ask about… Cas?" Catherine asked, she didn't want to bring him back up, but Mae looked up, and bit her lip.

"Sure." And without saying anything else, Mae left to go wait in the car.

After calling the guys up, they all agreed to meet up at the lake in an hour. So everyone got in their cars after breakfast, and headed out for the lake. It took a total of 2 hours to get onto the trail that lead deep into the woods, and even after that they had to park and start off on foot. After 30 minutes, they came to a clearing in the dense trees. Out in the middle, a sparkling lake with murky greenish water shimmered under the summer sun. The shore was about 20 feet from the edge of the clearing, its waters were surprisingly still.

"So, this is where the Afanc lives." Sam said, as he surveyed the area. The clearing was circular, and the only thing out by the lake was a couple of picnic tables and a lone trash can.

"Yup, we should take a look around and see if we can find anything." Catherine said, she began to walk around the clearing, while Mae headed for the water. Dean looked back at Sam and shrugged, then followed Catherine. Sam sighed and decided to go after Mae.

"So, how are you holding up?" Sam asked Mae, as he caught up with her by the water's edge.

"What do you mean?" Mae asked, sounding uninterested. She had her hands in her pockets and was looking out over the water. Sam sighed.

"We all know that you and Cas had something going on," he paused and looked at Mae, who turned to look at him, "and I think it's my fault that he left."

"Oh come on Sam, no it's not." Mae said.

"No, it is, I told him I would help him act… smooth around you," Sam admitted, Mae half smiled and looked out onto the water once more, Sam continued, "and when he heard that I was taking you to the party, he must had taken it the wrong way."

Mae stood there for a moment, processing what he had just said, then responded, "that idiot." Was all she said, before starting to walk away. Sam watched her for a moment, but then reached out and took her arm.

"Wait," he looked seriously into Mae's eyes, "you guys are… great together, and Castiel really isn't a bad guy. He's just… like Dean. He has problems with dealing with emotions. Just give him time, he'll come back."

Mae smiled, as he pulled her in for a friendly hug.

"Yeah, I keep hoping that he'll come back too. I've also been praying to him." Mae said, once she got out of Sam's arms. He looked down at her, surprised.

"Really? What did you say to him?"

"I told him that I missed him, and that I was sorry for whatever caused him to leave."

Sam nodded and then looked out over the lake along with her.

"Anyway, we should start looking around."

They all regrouped a few hours later, and unfortunately came up with nothing special. They did find a couple of mysterious wads of fur and scales reaffirming the Afanc's presence at the lake, but nothing showing where it was at the moment.

They all headed back through the forest to head back to the cars, but something sounded out in the distance in the thick of the trees that caused them all to pause and listen. The sound of singing softly rang throughout the woods.

"Do you guys hear that?" Dean asked; the rest of the group nodded. They all followed closely behind Dean as he wandered in the direction of the singing. Soon after, they stumbled into another small clearing in the middle of the forest; they found a large tree in the center, with a big, wide hole by the roots. It looked to be a cave of some sort. The singing sounded like it was coming from within, but promptly ceased as soon as they stepped out into the open air.

Dean held up a hand, signaling everyone to pause and listen intently. Suddenly, the dead leaves to their right all crunched down, as if something large had shifted. Turning his head in the direction of the sound, Dean was suddenly flung back, being hit by an unseen force.

Catherine yelled for everyone to scatter and ran for Dean. Sam and Mae swiftly dodged to the left, behind them a tree was struck, and splinters exploded from the trunk. After a few seconds, a few scales and wads of fur slowly came into vision wedged in a few chucks of the jagged wood jutting from the trunk.

Catherine ran to get behind Dean, who was still flying through the air. Once she got behind him, she held out her arms and caught him before he hit the ground. They both fell, with a collective grunt and slid a few feet, before hitting a tree.

Sam and Mae ran over to the opposite side of the clearing but were cut off by a hooded figure in a long, trailing black cloak. The figure held out an outstretched hand and began to sing.

An echoing, eerie incantation escaped the lips of the figure, and they immediately realized it was a female. Suddenly, the rush of a large destructive force began thundering their way. They turned and saw a whirlwind of dead leaves billowing behind something hurtling their way.

They quickly ran towards the forest. Sam looked down and picked up a fallen branch. Turning swiftly around, he held out the branch, aiming to pierce the creature as it came at them. It worked, and he struggled to keep himself from sliding back as something came in contact with the sharp point of the branch. He did slide back a couple feet, the force of the blow to the beast was powerful since it was barreling toward them incredible fast. He bumped into Mae, who turned to stand back to back with Sam, to help push the branch further into the beast.

The point of the branch disappeared into something, and a thunderous roar bellowed in Sam's face, they felt a gust of wind and Sam felt something wet hit his face. Suddenly, the singing ceased, and the dark cloaked figure disappeared into the forest. The beast then slowly backed off, Sam felt the branch sliding out of something, and they saw a trail of leaves flatten out towards the cave.

Once they were positive the monster was gone, Sam dropped the branch and ran along the edge of the clearing, Mae close by his side. They met up with Dean and Catherine, who were coming slowly coming back to their senses and getting up off the forest floor. They all rushed away from the clearing and made it back to their cars.

Everyone paused to take a breath, the boys leaned over, placing their hands on their knees, and their chests were heaving. The girls also made it back to Memphis, Mae leaned up against the hood, out of breath. Catherine looked over her car, and noticed a note placed under the windshield wiper.

Taking out from under the blade, she carefully opened the folded note.

"LEAVE THIS PLACE, NEVER RETURN"

She looked up and turned to show the note to the boys. Dean met her gaze and held up a similar note. Her eyes widened, and she gestured to the cars, signaling that they needed to get out of here. Fast.

Everyone got into their car, and they peeled off down the forest road.

The cars tore down the main road and careened back into the motel parking lot. The boys exited the Impala, and Dean slammed the driver's side door and rushed over to Catherine who was getting out of Memphis. He rushed to her side, and held her close, uttering comforting words and persistently asking her if she was alright.

"I'm alright, I promise." She insisted, as he held her face with both of his hands. Apologies and assuring promises to kill the beast who did this to them passed through his lips and he leaned in close for a tight embrace to still her slight shaking.

"You should be sorry…" she said, her voice muffled from being smothered by Dean's shirt as she held him close, "you scared me back there. I thought you were seriously hurt…"

Mae and Sam were speaking about what had just happened, and about the cloaked figure they saw in the clearing. Catherine and Dean listened in on the conversation, and upon hearing about the figure he angrily joined in.

"I bet it was that son of bitch Morton's wife. She sent that damn monster after us." Dean said.

"We can't rush into conclusions; we still have the party tonight." Sam said, leaning up against Memphis.

"Right, speaking of which, we need to start getting ready for," Mae said, "we can find out what's really going down after we speak with Morton. Just stick to the plan." Everyone nodded, and broke off to their rooms, to prepare for the evening event.

On the walk back to their room, Dean was speaking in a hushed but infuriated tone to Sam, "Whoever sent that damn Afanc after us, I'm gonna beat their ass into the ground. You almost got hurt, the girls almost got hurt… no one threatens the people I care about."

Back in the girl's room, Catherine and Mae were just about done getting ready for the party. Catherine had her red dress on, and her ruby ring. She wore her hair down in flowing curls and had a soft red lipstick on her lips. Mae had just put on her green dress along with her emerald ring. Her hair was up in a curly up do with a few curls of hair that spilled out of the bun. She went into the bathroom to look in the mirror one last time before leaving.

Upon entering the bathroom, she shut the door, and leaned up against the sink, staring blankly into the mirror.

Abruptly, the sound of fluttering wings filled the room, and her eyes were drawn to blue eyes behind her, reflected in the mirror. She gasped and turned around, finding Castiel looking apologetically back at her.

"Before you say anything, I'm sorry." Castiel said, looking down like a school kid who just broke a rule of some sort, "I shouldn't have left you and the group behind, and…" he was cut off when Mae rushed forward to embrace him, burying her face into his chest. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

Mae looked up, tears were welled up in her eyes, "I thought I did something wrong," Castiel smiled fondly and reached up to wipe the tears at the edges of her eyes, "I prayed and prayed, and hoped you were coming back. Not just because of the mission, but mainly because I missed you."

"I know, I was listening the whole time. I cannot express how sorry I am, for deserting everyone, especially you." Castiel admitted, Mae smiled, and held him tighter, giving a silent acceptance of his apology. After a moment of holding each other, Mae took a step back and looked over Castiel, who was wearing his suit.

"Well, don't you look dapper?" Mae noted, looking over Castiel form head to toe.

"You look charming as well," Castiel said, holding out his arm, "shall we?"

Mae took his arm, as he opened the door and smirked, "Where did you learn that phrase, 'shall we'?" she said, saying the phrase in a mocking tone.

Castiel grinned, "While out clearing my head, I took some time to watch a few romantic films. The Notebook was my favorite."

As they walked out into the main room, they found everyone, including the boys, out by the table. They all looked up and were surprised to see Castiel, with Mae on his arm.

"Hey, welcome back Cas." Dean called out, he had his arm around Catherine, who was smiling at Mae.

"I told you." Was all Catherine said, before going back to speaking with Dean. Sam approached Mae and Cas, looking guilty and extremely sorry.

"Look, Cas, I'm sorry for anything I did to break your trust in me. But it was just all a big misunderstanding and."

"It's ok Sam, I understand now." Castiel insisted, giving Sam the warmest smile, he could manage, but in human terms was just a mere grin.

"Are you sure? If you want to stay with Mae at the party, I would be totally fine with the recon for the rooms." Sam offered.

"It's alright Sam, I realize that I would be the most efficient in searching the rooms," Castiel remarked, smiling down at Mae, "I don't have any problems with you two going as friends."

Mae smiled, and went in to give Castiel a peck on the cheek and whispered "thank you" by his ear. He blushed and looked back at Sam with eyes as wide as plates. Sam smirked, and held up his hands, showing how he was going to stay out of this.

The group looked over the plan one last time before heading out to the cars. Dean drove with Catherine in Memphis, while Sam drove with Mae and Cas in the Impala. The cars exited the parking lot, and roll along out onto the open road, starting on their ride out to the Morton estate.

Chapter Twelve

Memphis' tires rolled on through the forest, up a winding road into the mountains. The Impala followed closely behind, both cars' headlights illuminating the twists and turns of the road on the side of the mountain. They were quickly approaching the mansion and had no idea what to expect.

Then, once they turned a corner, it was revealed before them. On the top of the mountain, a big cream-colored mansion loomed out in the distance; an expanse of green, healthy grass was rolled out in front. Tall, column like trees lined the perimeter of the mansion, which had a lavishly designed entrance, with a tall flight of marble stairs which lead to the wide, double doors. A wide area for parking was found right before the lawn, and already it was full of expensive looking sports cars of various kinds.

As they drove around looking for two parking spaces open next to each other, Catherine looked around in awe, having a field day simply observing all the makes and models of cars around her.

After parking and meeting up outside, the group then meandered towards the mansion. Other important looking people were also migrating towards the mansion from their cars.

After reaching the front gate, the group separated into their pairs and approached the security guard checking each guest before checking them off a list and allowing them inside the confines of the tall iron gates.

"Crap, what do we do now?" Dean whispered to the group, keeping his fake smile on.

"We already took care of it." Catherine said, patting Dean's shoulder. He looked down at her confused. They stepped up, and realized it was their turn to be interviewed by the beefy, well-dressed man by the entrance.

"Name?" he asked crudely, holding a pen to a clipboard.

"Dale and Christy Jefferson." Catherine said, with an air of confidence. Dean looked briefly down at Catherine before getting the gist, then smiled back up at the guard, "Yup, that's us!" he said. Catherine sent him a look and covertly mouthed "really?" before turning back to the guard beaming with her best fake smile.

The guard looked down at them suspiciously, but then looked down at the board, before checking off something and opening the door to let them in. They passed through, and Dean looked down at Catherine and mouthed, "not bad."

Mae and Sam then stepped up next, "Spencer and Martha Tucker; and this is our acquaintance Mr. Carl Victor." Mae said, as she casually gestured to Castiel beside them. The guard yet again merely nodded and checked their names off the list before letting them in.

"How did you guys do that?" Dean asked, once they all regrouped before heading through the front door.

"Now why would we tell you?" Catherine teased. Dean sent her a look, before holding out his arm. Catherine took it and they entered the door. Sam, Mae, and Cas followed suit, and all five of them merged into the mass of people who filled the mansion's large front room.

Once they passed through the soaring, wide double doors, the high ceilings and elegant design of the foyer was presented before them. They looked over the antique tapestries with gold trimmings and large detailed paintings adorned the walls, up above a crystal chandelier hung down from the ceiling. Near the back of the lobby, two dark wood staircases lead up to the second floor. They were instantly aware that they had entered the domain of the wealthy.

The front lobby was full of people, milling around and sharing small talk with each other, as servants hurried form guest to guest offering small snacks. Men wore tuxedoes and bowties, and women wore trailing chic gowns.

"Wow, this place makes the motel look like an old shack…" Sam said, as he gazed around in awe.

"Yeah, well we aren't here to enjoy ourselves. We get in, talk around, see what we can find, and get the hell out." Dean said, looking around suspiciously. He didn't feel comfortable in an atmosphere of fake smiles and pretentious demeanors.

The group looked around for bit, wondering where to begin. Castiel turned to everyone and told them he would head off and begin searching the rooms. He bid them goodbye, and walked out into the crowd, disappearing. They then spotted him a few minutes later, at the top of the right staircase, walking around the corner and down the hall.

Mae and Sam also branched off soon after Castiel left, they began to speak with random guests, working their way toward the more important looking people. They had their eye one on Harley Morton's secretary, Laney Stanton, who was a few feet away chatting away in the middle of a large group.

Catherine and Dean decided to look around and see who they could find. All of a sudden, Dean spotted Morton himself and secretly pointed him out to Catherine. She nodded, and they meandered towards him.

Unfortunately, Morton was pulled away, a man speaking in an urgent tone had approached him and ushered away down a hallway leading to a private part of the house. Catherine cursed under her breath and looked around her once more. Since they couldn't get a hold of Morton, they would have to get someone else. They both spotted Morton's wife, Rebecca and his finances manager, Elizabeth Reynolds.

Catherine looked at Dean, and they nodded before splitting up to speak to each person individually.

Sauntering up to Rebecca, Catherine put on her flashiest, warmest smile.

"Hello, Rebecca. This is a lovely get-together you have here." Catherine greeted, Rebecca looked up and smiled back at Catherine.

"Oh, it is, isn't it? I spent months planning this." Rebecca seemed distracted, looking around every few seconds.

"Are you looking for someone?" Catherine asked.

"Oh, a few men in the town council are present. I just wished to speak with them about the lake front property." Rebecca replied absent mindedly. Catherine's eyes shot up. Maybe she could get a little more information out of her.

"Oh, really?" Catherine then pretended to look around as well, "I heard you wanted to buy the property from them."

Rebecca stole a glance at Catherine, and then nodded suspiciously, "Yes, we do. However, it seems like they won't allow it. I had hoped they would sanction the purchase if I brought them here and gave them a little wine." Rebecca began to laugh, so Catherine began to chuckle as well. Catherine took note of the way Rebecca cackled, not at all sounding like a maiden with a hypnotizing voice.

After a few more minutes of speaking with her, Catherine realized she wasn't going to get anything else out of her. According to Mae, the person who controlled the Afanc would have a beautiful voice. However, Rebecca sounded like a devoted chain smoker. Her voice was crackly at times and had a grainy tone. So this ruled her out.

Catherine broke away from Rebecca and began to search the crowd for Dean and Elizabeth Reynolds. A woman brushed up roughly against her, almost knocking her over. She looked up at the woman, who was dressed in a black dress.

"My apologies, I should watch where I am going." The woman said and grinned strangely at Catherine. Catherine eyed the odd woman and told her it was fine before looking around for Dean once more, she was starting to wish she could leave now.

Meanwhile, Dean had met up with Elizabeth, and was having a hard time eliciting anything out of the woman. The problem wasn't that he didn't have her attention; it was that he was getting too much attention from her.

"My, my, you are such a handsome, young man…" The older woman crooned. She looked to be in her mid-forties, but was dressed much younger, her black dress low cut and high in length. She stroked Dean's cheek with the tips of her fingers, and Dean flinched away from her touch and laughed nervously.

"Haha… yeah… that's me…" Dean said unenthusiastically, he then tried to continue on interviewing her, "So, you manage the finances of the Morton family?"

"Yes. I do. What of it?" Elizabeth said, holding her wine glass between her fingers.

"I… uh… am thinking about funding their latest project." Dean said, making things up as he goes.

"Oh, you do… and what project are you referring to?" Elizabeth said, she put her glass up to her cherry red lips, her haunting grey eyes looking piercingly at Dean.

"Their newest one, that is going to be built out by the lake," Dean said, "they did buy that area by the lake, didn't they?"

Elizabeth paused her sipping form the glass, and looked back at Dean, he felt as though the intense grey eyes were seeing right through his act. Her lips upturned into an eerie smile, and she scooted closer to him. She got so close, he could smell the alcohol on her breath, she leaned in even closer so that her face was inches away from his.

"Well, not yet. But we will have it soon," she said, she bit her lip, and then placed her palm on Dean's neck, he shuttered, but her voice was so enchanting that he stayed frozen where he stood, "and once we do have the land, you can invest all you want into it. Have I made myself clear?"

Dean swallowed, and fearfully looked back at her, "Crystal."

Elizabeth then turned his chin towards her and leaned in for a kiss. Her lips puckered, eyes closed, Dean stared at her with wide eyes. He wanted to jump back, and push her off him, but something was preventing him from doing so. He could only stare in horror as the middle-aged woman got closer and closer.

Catherine had searched for Dean for a good 20 minutes, before giving up. She sat down, her feet tired and sore from wearing the heels she had been wearing all evening. She began to wring her hands out of nervousness, what if they didn't find out anything tonight? Then what?

Suddenly, she noticed something amiss with her hands. Her ring was gone. Her most prized possession in the world was not on her finger where it should be. She immediately began to frantically look around, for any sign of the blood red gem. It was nowhere in sight.

Sam and Mae walked up, looking tired.

"We don't think it was the secretary," Mae said, sighing, "She spoke way too softly, and was too short to be the person in the cloak." She looked at her sister, who was still searching the floor for something.

"Uh, looking for something?" Sam said. Catherine looked up, clearly upset.

"I'm looking for my ring." She said, exasperated. Mae gasped and began looking as well, "You lost your ring!?"

"Is it important to you?" Sam asked, Mae turned back to him, "We were given rings by our parents when we were kids. They are very special to us."

Sam nodded, "Okay, here, I'll help you guys look."

"Actually, I'm going to head upstairs and see if I can find Cas. It's getting late, and we need to leave and cut our losses." Mae said. Both Catherine and Sam nodded, and continued to search for the missing ring. Mae quickly made her way upstairs, unnoticed by the crowd and went around the corner Castiel had gone around earlier.

Sam and Catherine wandered through the sea of people, keeping an eye out for the ring. They walked around the room, for what seemed hours, but was only a few minutes, until Catherine stopped dead in her tracks.

"Did you find it?" Sam asked. Catherine shook her head and was staring incredulously in a direction. Sam followed it and was shocked at what he saw. Dean was kissing a woman who looked to be twice his age.

The woman had one hand on his neck, the other in his pocket. Catherine recognized her as the woman who ran into her earlier. When she looked up from the kiss and saw Catherine, then smiled that same strange smile, and let go of Dean, and whispered something in his ear before walking away.

Catherine stormed up to Dean, furious, "What the hell was that? We were supposed to get info form the suspects, not a damn kiss!"

"Look, I don't know what came over me!? I didn't wanna!" Dean said, trying to convince Catherine of his innocence in the situation. She looked at him, disbelieving the whole thing. She wanted to believe him, but she feared that her trust had been broken.

She sighed, deciding to drop the whole thing, "Whatever, let's just head out of here. I've had enough of this. By the way, have you seen my ring?"

Dean shook his head, then cursed under his breathe, "Shit… here she comes again…" True to his word, he pointed at Elizabeth who was walking towards them, still wearing the strange grin.

"Hello, I would like to receive the payment you said you would like to give for our latest project." She said, holding out her hand. Everyone looked at her, then at Dean confused. He himself was puzzled, but then quickly remembered what he had told her. He smirked.

"I don't have any money on me, sorry."

"Oh, that's fine. You can give me that ring in your pocket as payment. You know the one you were offering me earlier?" Her grin seemed to curl up even higher, "it's a lovely ring."

Catherine sent Dean a suspicious look. "He couldn't have…" she thought, she got a bad feeling in her stomach; her head began to fill with suspicions and doubts.

Dean looked at the woman confused, and she laughed. Everyone noticed that her laugh sounded pleasant on their ears, almost mesmerizing.

"Well, you don't have to right now. But if you change your mind, I will be around." Elizabeth said, before walking away for the last time.

Dean looked at Catherine, who had her hands on her hips, looking at Dean expectantly. He reached into this left coat pocket and felt something round in his pocket. He closed his eyes and hoped to God it wasn't what they all thought it was. Pulling it out, a glint of red meet Catherine's eyes and she cursed and turned around in frustration.

"Wait! Cat, it's not what you think!" Dean said her red ring in his hand.

"Then what is this Dean?" Catherine asked, enraged, "Why the hell to you have my ring?"

"I dunno!? I have no clue how this got in my pocket!" He said, "Please believe me! I would never do this to you."

Catherine snatched the red ring away from Dean's palm, and pulled Sam by the arm, walking away from Dean. "Whatever Dean, I should have trusted my gut from the beginning. I should have never trusted you."

"Please, Cat, wait!" Dean said, desperately, but it was too late. Catherine and Sam had disappeared into the dense crowd from where they had come from, leaving Dean standing alone.

Chapter Thirteen

"I can't believe him…" Catherine blinked back hot tears as she pulled Sam along in the crowd, he followed willingly.

"Look, maybe we can go back, talk everything out?" Sam offered, Catherine turned back and glowered at him, her eyes misty and her cheeks flushed. They had made it to a quiet corner of the room, where everyone else was out of earshot.

"Honestly Sam, I don't wanna. I trusted him, and I don't trust people very easily." Catherine plopped down on a nearby chair, and Sam walked up next to her and placed a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.

"It's alright," Sam sighed and sat down next to her, "I understand."

He reached into his pocket and brought out a handkerchief, which Catherine took and dabbed at her eyes. Sam looked down at her with a reassuring smile on his face.

"Dean can be a complete idiot sometimes, but you gotta trust that he'll make it up to you," Sam placed an arm around Catherine and held her close, "I know my brother, and he loves you Catherine."

"H-he does?" Catherine said, between sniffles. Sam nodded, and continued.

"I've never seen him act the way he does whenever he's with you. Sure, he's been with tons of girls," Catherine raised an eyebrow, but Sam hastily added on, "but he's definitely fallen head over heels for you."

Catherine sat in silence, taking everything that Sam had said in.

"Just believe me Catherine; he would never do anything to harm you. He cares about you, and he would never let anyone he cares about get hurt."

Sam got up, "Why don't we go outside to the back porch, I think we could both use some air." Catherine agreed, and took Sam's arm as they headed across the large room, to the back door. They went through the smaller door, to the cool air outside.

In the time they had spent at the party, night had fallen over the land. The backyard was a large expanse of grass, with a large fountain in the middle. In the distance, they could make out the edge of the woods. Behind the large fountain, there was a gazebo lit up by white Christmas lights, which twinkled softly every second or so.

Both Catherine and Sam were surprised to find Dean sitting alone, in the gazebo, hunched over, his arms resting on his knees and his head hung low.

Catherine looked up at Sam, who was smiling softly, "Why don't you go talk to him?"

"I'm afraid." Catherine said bluntly, turning away.

"Of what?"

"That he doesn't want to see me."

Sam turned her around and placed both hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "Catherine, if there is anyone he wants to see, it's definitely you."

Catherine looked at Sam, then over at Dean, who was still unaware of their presence. She sighed, then nodded and began to walk towards the gazebo. Sam put his hands in his pockets and watched her make her way across the backyard. He slipped back inside, to give them privacy.

Mae quietly tip toed down a hallway. At first, she was eager to find Castiel, and then meet up with the others and get the hell out of the Morton estate. They didn't plan to stay this long, and she wanted to leave a.s.a.p.

"Cas!" she whispered, calling out to the angel. The hallway was dimly lit by candles that lined the walls. She shivered, it was slightly colder upstairs, and the whole atmosphere had changed to an eerie feeling.

Suddenly, she heard something shift behind her. She swiveled around, ready to run, but found Castiel standing behind her.

"Castiel!" she whispered angrily, breathing out in relief, "you scared the hell out of me!"

"Sorry," Castiel apologized, and held out a black cloth and book in his hands, "I've found some things that might help us come to conclusions about the suspect who is controlling the Afanc."

"Great," Mae said, looking around, "let's get downstairs and find the others then. We need to get out of here."

Mae walked with Castiel down the hallway and made their way to the corner that turned around to the stairs, she paused and peered around the corner, "I don't see them."

Castiel stood still for moment, and seemed to focus into space, he then spoke up, "I can sense them all outside in the backyard. I can transport us back there without attracting attention to us."

Mae nodded and was surprised to find Castiel placing two fingers on her forehead.

Dean was seated outside, regretting that he had talked with the overbearing Elizabeth. Catherine had seen her kissing him, which he deeply regretted, even though he didn't want the kiss at all. It was almost as if she was controlling him somehow.

Even if it wasn't his fault, he still felt horrible for causing Catherine any pain. He saw the look of betrayal in her eyes, before she fled with Sam away from him. He wanted to go back and force himself to go after her and explain everything. Now all he could manage was to get outside for fresh air and think everything out. He didn't even notice when she walked under the gazebo's roof and took a seat next to him.

"It's nice outside tonight." Catherine said softly, making Dean jump. Catherine turned her head when Dean looked up at her, away from him and looked towards the fountain.

"Cat!" Dean said softly in surprise.

"Look, I don't know what the hell was going on back there," Catherine said, "but just know that I still… want us to be okay…"

She turned around and found Dean staring at her with regret in his eyes. He reached up and held her face with both hands and brought his face in and placed a gently kiss on her lips.

At first, her eyes were wide in shock, but then she relaxed and shut them. She placed a hand on his neck and deepened the kiss. After a few minutes, they broke away for air. Breathing heavily, Dean managed to get words to stumble from his lips.

"I'm sorry Cat, I had no idea that Elizabeth was going to do that, I really didn't want her. I hope you'll forgive me, and…." He looked straight into Catherine's eyes, with sincerity shining in his, "I love you."

Catherine stared back, her cheeks were flushed once again, but this time she was smiling.

"I love you too."

Dean pulled her in and held her tightly, and Catherine hugged back.

He reached into his pocket and brought out her ring. Taking her hand, he carefully slipped it back onto her finger, right where it belonged, and kissed her hand. She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek.

After a few minutes, they back off, and got up. Suddenly, by the fountain, Mae and Castiel seemed to appear out of thin air. Mae looked dazed and confused, and Castiel had his hands in his pockets.

"What was that?" Mae asked, slightly confused and looking around at her surroundings.

"I transported us out of the house." Castiel stated calmly.

"Hey guys, I think we should start heading out. I think I know who it is." Dean called out to them. They both looked back, and saw Dean standing at the entrance of the gazebo with Catherine by his side.

"Okay. Castiel found some evidence, so we can go back to our room and make it certain." Mae said. Everyone made their way to the door, and found Sam waiting inside directly beside it. Now that the group was made complete, they each made their way across the room separately, so that they wouldn't attract any attention.

Just as Dean and Catherine were about to make it through the door, Elizabeth seemed to step out of nowhere, and stepped in front of the couple.

"Leaving so soon, are we?" she said in a strange tone of voice, her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, we are leaving," Dean said, his eyes were narrowed, "now, if you will excuse us." He took Catherine's hand, and walked around Elizabeth, taking Catherine with him.

"Now, why leave so early? Why not stay for a while longer?" Elizabeth crooned, taking Catherine's other hand. Catherine stopped dead in her tracks, the other woman's voice seemed so inviting. "That's right dear, why don't you two come and tell me about what you are doing in town?"

Dean turned around and broke the Elizabeth's hold on Catherine by taking her hand out of the old woman's grip. He stared back at Elizabeth with a glare, "We would love to, but we must get going."

Elizabeth smiled a new smile, one that seemed foreboding and as if she knew something she shouldn't, "Alright then. Good night you two, and remember, you must stay away from the lake. The reports of people going missing there are increasing. I wouldn't want you two to get hurt."

Dean scoffed and turned to walk away, pulling a dazed Catherine out the door. Once they were outside, she snapped out of it, and looked up at Dean worried.

"She got me under her control for a while, didn't she?" she asked, to confirm if what had happened really happened. Dean nodded gravely. They found Sam, Mae, and Castiel standing outside the gate, waiting for them in the parking lot.

"What happened? What took you guys so long?" Mae asked, rushing up to Catherine.

"That bitch got me under her spell for a moment." Catherine said. Everyone looked up alarmed.

"It's okay, Dean got me away from her; but now we know. We know it is her."

"I don't think Morton, his wife, or the secretary are in on it," Sam added, "We talked to all of them except for Morton, and they didn't have the right voices; Morton's been out of town for two months, and just got back today. It couldn't have been him in the clearing." Sam added.

"But anyone of them might be telling Elizabeth to control the Afanc, in order to get the job done. She may just be a lackey." Mae pointed out.

"Well, whoever is doing this, if we take out the Afanc, then they can't do anything to harm anyone," Dean said, "What we need to do, is kill it, and make sure no one else gets hurt." Everyone agreed, and they then made their way to the cars. They all split off to the cars they rode to the mansion in. Once Dean started up the Impala and began to head down the winding road away from the mansion, Catherine reached up and placed a hand on his neck.

Dean looked back at her for a moment, before turning back to the road. A fond smile played out on his lips as he tried to focus on driving instead of Catherine's loving gesture. The Impala rocketed down the dark road, out towards the motel where the group would prepare to kill the Afanc.

Chapter Fourteen

"Alright, so when Cas was snooping around upstairs, he found these." Mae said, laying out the book and the cloak out on the table. They were all assembled in the boys' room.

Catherine flipped open the cover of the leather-bound book, finding that every page on the inside had incantations and spells written in red ink. Every twenty or so pages, they found different pictures of creatures that looked to be the Afanc.

"Alright, so now, what is our game plan on how we are going to kill that ugly son of a bitch?" Dean asked, handing a beer to everyone. Everyone took one, except for Castiel and Mae, who were looking over the book and asked Dean to set theirs on the table.

When Catherine took hers, she smiled and winked at Dean, "Thanks, I need a little hunter's helper." Dean smiled back and took a seat next to her, taking a sip out of his bottle.

"Hey, look at this," Sam said, pointing to one of the pages, which had a lengthy paragraph written in neat, elegant handwriting, "It says here that this song is sung to the Afanc by a young girl who wears a hood of black silk, then the creature will 'place it's head on the young maiden's lap, and fall into slumber in the sound of her enchanting voice'."

Mae looked at the page that Sam was reading, and read the song bellow the paragraph,

"Sleep dear Afanc, for I am but a fearful maiden who intones melodies of peace for you. Come lay your frightful head upon my knee, and I will sing sweet songs that will lull you to rest."

When Mae finished reading, everyone looked at each other.

"So, who will put on the cloak and sing to the Afanc." Castiel asked, breaking the silence.

Everyone looked around, not wanting to be the one to get the Afanc to sleep on their lap. Mae sighed, and spoke up.

"I'll do it."

"Like hell you will…" Catherine said, everyone turned to her, shocked, "I'll be maiden."

"Cat, I can do this. Don't worry."

"No, I promised mom and dad I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I'm not about to let my little sister go out there and get in harm's way." Catherine stood up and stared at her sister with a determine look on her face. Mae looked back with the same expression, holding her ground.

"Cat, we both get in harm's way every time we go out for a hunt. I'll be fine."

"This isn't just any old hunt though. This is one of the biggest monsters we've gone after, and you know how I feel about letting you be the bait."

"I will watch over her," Castiel said, stepping between them, "I will make sure things don't get out of hand."

Catherine eased back, eyeing Castiel, finally she submitted to their conditions and sat back down next to Dean, "Fine, but you better be sure you won't let it hurt a hair on her head."

"I'll protect her with my life." Castiel said. Mae looked up at him, and smiled and mouthed the words thank you before going back to read the book beside Sam.

Catherine got up once more, and ushered Castiel over to another corner of the room, making it seem like she was showing him something over by the dresser in the corner. Dean got up to follow them, but Catherine asked to speak with Castiel alone. Dean hesitantly agreed and went to sit with Mae and Sam, to look over the spell book.

"Castiel, I trust you with my sister, but please," Catherine said looking desperately at the stoic angel, "she's the only family I have. I need you to keep her safe."

"I understand Catherine." Castiel said, smiling softly at her, "you have strong bond with Mae, just as Sam and Dean have with each other. I'm going to do my best to keep everyone safe."

Catherine nodded, and the two rejoined the group by the table. They all collectively came up with a plan for the lake.

"Alright, so everyone knows their role and where they are stationed." Sam said, everyone nodded.

"Okay, let's all get to bed. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," Dean said, placing an arm around Catherine, "we're going Afanc hunting."

The next morning, Catherine awoke early to go on her morning run. After getting dressed and ready, she headed out the door quietly, as to not wake up the still snoring Mae. She stepped out and took in the morning atmosphere. Instead of the usual Great Rapids sunshiny morning, it was gloomy and dark. Shrugging, she put up the hood of her jacket to stop the morning mist from getting in her eyes and began to jog off down the road.

With every step forward, she felt herself get lost in the rhythm of her feet, and her mind began to run through all the thoughts that had kept her awake for most of last night. She had been trained to be a hunter ever since she was old enough to fire a pistol; she had never really had a true sense of fear since she had literally come face to face with everything that most would find terrifying and horrific.

However, even with years of acquired bravery from hunting things that go bump in the night, she still felt…scared.

At first, she brushed it off as anxiousness, and guessed that she just wanted to get this job over and done with. Then she realized she was afraid; though she couldn't really put a finger on why.

Maybe it was because her and Mae really taken on a monster this size in a long while, or maybe it was because they had taken a pretty long break since the last case and this one. She pushed those thoughts out of her mind, those couldn't be it. Then, another one slowly formed, and dismay began to spread through her.

What if it was because she had too much to lose this time? She had Mae, of course, the two had spent almost every point in their lives together; she had Sam and Cas, who were almost like brothers to her now; and then she had Dean, the only guy she had ever really felt any true romantic feelings for.

It was almost like there was a new family forming around her; which she felt odd about, since she hadn't felt the true comfort of a family since her parents had passed away years ago, leaving her and Mae to fend for themselves as young orphaned hunters.

Catherine felt something run down her cheek, which she knew wasn't sweat since she hadn't been running for that long. Reaching up to wipe it away, she realized that tears were starting to drip from her lashes. Coming to a stop on the sidewalk, she stood still for a moment, to wipe her face. She nearly jumped five feet up in the air when a car horn blared behind her.

"Hey Cat!"

She quickly turned and stared dubiously at Dean who had pulled up behind her on the side of the road in the Impala.

"What are you doing here Bean?" Catherine said, a smirk playing on her lips, Dean chuckled and ushered for her to come nearer. She rolled her eyes but complied and walked up to the driver's side door just as he was pulling down the side window all the way.

"I went to check on you guys this morning, but Mae answered and said you left for a jog. So I came to find you." Dean stated happily, smiling with a sense of accomplishment. Catherine laughed and leaned her elbows on the door.

"And why'd you do that? I was gonna be back in a few more minutes…"

"'Cause, I wanted to take you out to breakfast! No Mae, No Sam, sure as hell no Cas, just you and me."

Catherine looked at him skeptically, and stood up straight and crossed her arms, "I dunno Dean…"

"Aw, come on! Sam and Mae wanted to sleep in anyway, and Cas is just watching T.V. We aren't leaving for the lake until the afternoon, so we got the whole morning to ourselves." Dean pleaded; Catherine could almost see a puppy dog look developing on his face.

"Fine, but only for breakfast."

"Great, let's get going." Dean beamed at her, before getting out and walking around the front of the car with her to open the passenger side door for her. After she got in, he promptly shut her door and then made it back to the driver's seat and got in. They drove down the road into the busier part of town. They drove around for a while before stopping in front of an old looking diner.

"So, why'd you get up so early Bean? I know that you usually need lots of beauty sleep." Catherine said, playfully teasing Dean as he held open the door of the diner for her.

"Like I said earlier, I wanted to spend time with you, just the two of us." Dean said, smiling down at Catherine. They walked up to a booth and sat opposite to each other. After a few minutes, a waitress walked up to the table with a few menus in hand.

"Hello, I'm Shirley, I'll be serving you two today," the waitress said with a pleasant smile, "I'll give you guys a minute to decide. I recommend the pancakes. Also, we have a couple pies in the back that would go great with breakfast."

After taking their order for drinks, Shirley left, and Catherine turned to Dean, "Doesn't pie sound good right now? Why don't we just have pie for breakfast?"

Dean glanced up at her from the menu, "You… like pie?"

"Well, yeah… who doesn't like pie?" Catherine said, "You know, I can make a really good cherry pie."

"… you can?" Dean said, looking dazedly back at Catherine. She laughed and waved a hand in front of his face, and he blinked back into reality.

"Sorry, it's just… is there anything that we both aren't into? I mean, pie, hunting, guns, and the cars…"

Catherine looked up at Dean sternly as soon as he uttered the word 'car'. He immediately stopped talking and tried to assess what he said to make her upset. Then he shut his eyes and cursed under his breath.

"Dean…"

"Yeah, I know, 'don't talk about cars.' I forgot that you're still mad about Memphis, sorry."

Catherine sighed and looked out the diner window, "It's ok. It's just, that car is really special to me. It was my parent's."

Dean was taken aback and realized the seriousness of the whole accident. Memphis pretty much held the same sentimental value that the Impala had for him. He suddenly felt even guiltier about damaging an important part of Catherine's life. He reached out across the table and took Catherine's hands. She blinked up in surprise.

"Look, I really am sorry," his previous grin was now serious, Catherine was now taken aback at how somber Dean was, "I will fix what I did to Memphis."

"It's okay Dean, I trust that you will make it up to me." Catherine smiled reassuringly towards Dean and placed her hand on top of his. They both stared into each other's eyes for what seemed a lifetime and began to slowly inch towards each other. But before they could get close enough, Shirley cut in and placed both of their drinks on the table.

"Here you guys go, one coffee, and one orange juice. Now, what would you two want to eat?"

The two hunters looked up in surprise, and both chuckled quietly and asked for a couple of pies.

"Mae… wake up… Mae?"

Mae groaned and slowly blinked her eyes open. All she wanted to do was get some extra sleep in before they left for the woods later, but everyone seemed keen on getting her up. Earlier, Dean and knocked on the door and was asking for Catherine.

"I wonder how they are doing…" Mae thought to herself.

Once she opened her eyes, she found Castiel's face looming over her as he stood by her bedside.

"Good morning Cas…" Mae said softly, still not fully awake.

"Good morning Mae." Castiel said, smiling down at Mae. She raised an eyebrow at the angel's face hovering above her; she shook her head and laughed.

"Have you ever heard of personal space, Cas?"

"Dean has mentioned it to me once or twice… am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Just a bit." Mae said, sitting up. Castiel took a few steps back and took a seat in a chair by the wall, as Mae then set her feet on the floor and stood up to stretch.

"I thought you were with Sam." Mae stated, walking over to the bathroom to get changed out of her pajamas. On the way there, she grabbed some clothes and her emerald ring which was set on the dresser.

"I was but watching T.V. was …boring. Sam was still asleep, so I didn't want to bother him. I thought that you would be better to ask for company."

"I see…" Mae said as she shut the bathroom door, "so, how do you think today will go?"

"Well, we do have thought this all through very thoroughly. So it should go well if it all goes as planned."

Mae walked out of the bathroom dressed and ready to go, a jacket in one arm. She stood in front of Castiel and smiled, "I see, well, then we have nothing to worry about. We have the whole morning to kill, so why don't we go out for a walk?"

"Uh… sure…" Castiel said uncertainly, standing up. Mae raised an eyebrow once again in his direction.

"I know you are pretty bad at 'acting human', but you **have** to have gone on a walk before."

"I have… it's just I've never walked with another person before."

"Oh, well then," Mae smirked as she began walking for the door to the room, "I'm honored to be the first."

Castiel smiled and walked with her out of the door, and they started down the road. Although it was a chilly, misty morning, they enjoyed the cool breeze as they strolled close together on the cracked sidewalk. They hardly spoke, and when they did it was in a soft gentle voice that could only be heard between the two of them. After walking a few blocks, they decided to take a break by a bench in front of a small park.

"I enjoy talking with you, Mae." Castiel said as he plopped down on the bench next to her, she smiled at him in response. They sat in comfortable silence, until Castiel shift slightly. He seemed to be debating something in his mind, before he took a breath and reached his arm up and around Mae's shoulders.

Mae looked up at him, pleasantly shocked. She grinned to herself and laid her head on his shoulder. Castiel smiled to himself, glad that he had finally done something right. He glanced down and noticed that Mae was lost in her own thoughts, her hands fiddling with the silver ring with the glistening emerald on it.

"That's a beautiful ring; does it bear an important significance?" Castiel said softly. Mae glanced up, and then looked down at the ring. She bit her lip, and then replied in an equally soft voice.

"It was given to me by my parents," she didn't dare look up at Castiel, as her uncontrollably began to mist over, "they… passed away a while back. So this is the only thing I have that reminds me of them." She began to turn the ring on her finger and smiled to herself.

"You know, the funny thing is, whenever I got scared while on a hunt, they said that I should pray to the angels; and that if I did, one would come down and watch over me."

She looked up, and gazed into Castiel's sympathetic gaze, admiring his sky-blue eyes, "I guess they were right."

They were silent once more, lost in each other's eyes, and didn't even realize that they were inching closer and closer, until their foreheads were centimeters apart. Once Castiel realized how close he was to Mae, his eyes widened, and he shifted a tiny bit back, however his body stayed close to hers, as if they were held together by a magnetic force.

Mae laughed, and leaned in to give Castiel a peck on the nose. He looked back at her shocked, before grinning to himself as Mae continue to laugh. Once her laughter died down, they returned to staring deeply into each other's eyes. With one hand reaching up to hold her face, Castiel leaned in and planted his lips chastely on Mae's. She didn't fight it and returned the kiss. They felt complete.

However, they didn't notice when a certain black Impala came around the corner and slowed to a stop by the bench in the street.

Mae and Castiel retracted from the kiss when a horn blared behind them, startling them and causing them to look back. In the Impala, Dean sat in the driver's seat grinning from ear to ear at the embarrassed couple, Catherine sat in the passenger's side smirking and crossing her arms.

Without another word, they both got up from the bench and walked over to the Impala. Dean rolled down the driver's side window.

"Fancy meeting you two here." Dean said, a slight playful mocking tone in his voice.

Mae opened her mouth to explain the whole thing to Catherine, but Catherine held up a hand to stop her from doing so.

"Don't even try to explain. It's ok, I'm not mad or anything. Just get in the back, we're heading back to the motel. We decided it would be best to leave early."

Mae and Castiel obeyed and got into the back of the Impala. After Mae had climbed into the back, and Castiel was getting in himself, he looked up in the rearview mirror. Dean was watching him. He saw Dean hold up a thumbs up and mouth the word 'nice.' Castiel shook his head and shut the door.

The ride back was not as uncomfortable as Mae thought it would be. At first, she thought Catherine would be furious. Her older sister had always been the protective type and wouldn't let anyone touch her little sister. However, Catherine seemed completely fine with the kiss, and didn't even bring it up once.

After they eased into the usual motel parking lot space, they all got out and headed to their rooms to pack. They planned on leaving the town for good as soon as they killed the Afanc. Independently while packing in their rooms, Dean and Catherine told the group about how they had discussed what they were going to do after the hunt over breakfast. They decided that Catherine and Mae would travel with the boys back over to Bobby's, and then they would figure out what to do next from there.

"I have no problem with that." Mae said, as her and Catherine packed up in their room. Catherine nodded as she zipped up her duffel bag and set it down by the front door. Mae had also just finished stuffing everything into her own bag and was heading to the door to put everything in the trunk of their car.

After everyone had packed up their cars, and Catherine and Dean had checked in their room keys, they all congregated outside the cars.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go?" Catherine asked the group, everyone nodded and looked around. Although they were all more than prepared, there was a spark of excitement and anxiety in the air.

"Ok, then let's get a move on!" Dean said, walking around the group to get to the Impala. Before getting in the driver's seat, he stole a kiss on Catherine's cheek and then got in and shut the door. Catherine smirked, and turned around; she patted the hood of the Impala before walking around to Memphis. The boys got in the Impala, as the girls got in Memphis.

Following closely behind the Impala, Memphis made its way out of the parking lot, leaving the motel for good. The cars traveled down the road, heading north, towards the lake. For most of the trip, it was silent in both cars. Everyone was getting mentally prepared for what they were about to go up against.

Although Catherine still felt that gnawing anxiety in her gut, she now felt a bit relieved. She knew that with all their effort combined, the killing the Afanc would be a piece of cake.

Chapter Fifteen

The Impala pulled up to a clear space in the woods, and Memphis pulled up next to it. The forest was deadly silent, not an animal stirred. The ambience was made even creepier by the fog that sifted through the trees and made it impossible to see farther than a couple feet out into the woods.

Mae and Catherine got out of Memphis, and immediately headed for the trunk to gather their supplies. The boys also got out and headed for their trunk to get their things.

"Okay, it's about..." Sam said, checking his wrist watch, "5:45, so after we get everything ready and set up, we'll just have to wait until night fall and start calling it out."

"And then we'll gank that son of a bitch." Dean said, Catherine laughed and continued to gather her things.

Mae and pulled on the black silk cloak that they had stolen from Elizabeth and was tying the string around her neck. Fumbling with the black string, her hold was overtaken by Castiel's hands, as he helped her secure the cloak. Sam was sharpening a couple large branches that they would use to fight the Afanc. After shaving away at four, he handed one to everyone except Mae.

After everyone was situated and ready to go, they set off down the foot trail towards the lake. However, after walking for an hour or so, a problem blocked their path. The shorter trail was shut down, due to a fallen tree. They decided to compromise and use the longer, and more dangerous path that winded up a mountain and down a steep cliff.

"In order to speed things up," Sam said, trying to better the situation, "why doesn't Cas zap himself and another person over to the lake so that they can get set up and wait for the rest of us to make it over there."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Dean said, looking around at the group, "since Mae needs to get everything ready by the shore, her and Cas will go ahead and wait up for us."

Everyone agreed, and after she gave Catherine a reassuring smile, Mae turned to Castiel. He touched her forehead and they disappeared with the sound of fluttering wings echoing out into the woods.

That left Catherine, Dean, and Sam left on the trail. They continued on their way, and began to trudge up the steep mountain path, leading to the peak.

"Dean, be careful!" Catherine warned. The trio had made it to the top and were looking over the forest. They could see all over the tree tops and could even make out Mae and Castiel by the lake, moving about. Catherine was keeping a wary eye on Dean, who was standing dangerously close to the edge of the cliff they were resting on.

"Aw, calm down Cat. I won't fall." Dean said assuring, as he moved even farther out towards the edge.

"...just be careful okay? We haven't even gone down there yet, and I am already worried about you hurting yourself." Catherine said unamused, as she sat on a rock under the shade of a large oak tree.

"Listen to Catherine, Dean, just stop being stupid and get away from the edge." Sam agreed, he was standing by the tree as well, leaning up against it.

"They're right," a mysterious voice with an odd echoing quality in it sounded from behind them, they all looked back confused as to where it was coming from, "you shouldn't stand too close to the edge. Unless you want to, **jump off**."

The last two words had a certain kind of emphasis, the kind that people use when giving a command to a dog. Dean's eyes widened, and he turned his back to Catherine and Sam, who immediately stood up realizing that Dean was under the influence of the voice.

"Dean..." Catherine said, trying to get his attention, "don't listen to her, she's controlling you."

"Oh, come now Dean," Elizabeth said, as she emerged from the bushes behind them, Catherine and Sam moved to tackled her, but she held up a hand and spoke, " **Stop**."

They both froze, now unable to move. Catherine looked over at Dean and breathed out in relief when she saw him still on the edge, his hands in fists. It looked like he was trying to resist Elizabeth's command.

"Now then," Elizabeth turned back to Dean, and began to walk towards him, "why not do what I say, Dean? Go on, **jump**."

"No! Dean stop!" Catherine begged. Beside her, Sam was struggling with all his might, trying to move at all cost. Elizabeth began to laugh and turned around and shushed Catherine. Catherine suddenly found it hard to open her mouth and speak. Sam seemed to have the same problem.

"Why?" Dean asked, in a strained voice. Everyone's attention was brought to him, as he still struggled to keep both feet planted on the cliff's edge. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing all of this?"

Elizabeth chuckled, and gradually her laughter began to increase in volume; holding her stomach and her face was pinched as she howled in laughter. After she calmed down, she replied to Dean's question, "I did this for the money, of course. Once Morton got the land, he was planning on logging the entire area, and making a new factory. After he made a hefty profit, I was also planning on killing him and his wife as well; so that I could then reap the fruits of my labor."

"Well, anyway, I'd like to keep on chatting with you, but after I kill you three, I was planning on getting rid of the girl and the other boy out there to finally get you pests off my hands. So, I would appreciate it, if you **jump**." Elizabeth said, she was now directly behind Dean, and was whispering in his ear.

Dean continued to struggle, and Elizabeth sighed out of impatience, annoyed at how much will Dean had. "Fine. I guess I have to take matters into my own hands." Elizabeth said, as she placed a hand on Dean's back. Catherine's eyes widened as Elizabeth gave Dean a shove, and he began to lose his footing.

It all happened fast, as Catherine managed to open her mouth, and let out a terrified scream.

"No! Dean!"

She broke free, and surged forward towards the edge, her hands outreached for Elizabeth. Upon impact, Catherine wrapped her arms around the woman and tackled her to the ground. Elizabeth let out a shriek, which broke her spell and Sam broke free as well. He ran over to the girls, but Catherine had already gotten up and was rushing for the edge.

Dean had already lost his footing, and was falling off the cliff, as Catherine made it to the edge. She reached out and grabbed on to Dean's hand. His grip was limp as he hung in Catherine's hold, and his weight caused her to slide off as well. Before falling too far, she reached up and took hold of the cracked earth above her, suddenly she found her arms being stretched as she fought to hold up a grown man and herself up.

"Dean! Please! Snap out of it!" She cried, her voice wavered out of the strain of trying to keep on holding on. Dean didn't answer and continued to dangle out in the open air unresponsive.

Catherine realized that she now only had two choices: one, let go of Dean and climb back up, or two, continue to try and hold on until her grip gave way. She decided that choice one was not an option and continued to fight to hold on. Up on the ledge, she heard a struggle, and then the sound of a body hitting the ground. She prayed that Sam had been victorious and was coming to help them.

Suddenly, the rock she was holding onto cracked, and then gave way, causing her to lose any grip she had on the ledge, she screamed as she felt herself go weightless for a second, and then begin to plummet towards the ground.

A hand reached out and grabbed onto hers, stopping their fall. Dean blinked, and snapped out of it, becoming aware of where he was.

"Hold on! I'll pull you up!" Sam called from up above. Catherine felt herself being hoisted up, as she tugged Dean along with her. She was pulled over the ledge and landed in Sam's arms. Dean also made it up, and landed gently on the ground next to them, his chest heaving as he lay to catch his breath.

Sam wrapped his arms around the shaking Catherine and tried to comfort her.

"It's okay, I got you." He said, as Catherine trembled in his arms. After she calmed down, she got up with the assistance of Sam, and then helped Dean up. She sat him up, and then pulled him in for a tight hug. Dean wordlessly hugged back.

They sat there for a few minutes before Sam cleared his throat. They all looked over to the unconscious Elizabeth lying on the ground a few feet away.

"What do we do with her?" Sam asked.

"Well, that bitch is too dangerous for us to just leave her." Dean spat, he was done with the crazy woman.

"I brought up some extra chains, so we can tie her up and leave her for later when we call the cops." Catherine said. She walked over to her bag and pulled them out. They proceeded to tie Elizabeth up to the tree they were taking shelter under. After they finished, the then continued down the path, eager to catch up with Mae and Castiel.

"What took you guys so long?" Mae asked, she was sitting by the shore, the cloak wrapped around her. Castiel stood by her and was also looking at the Winchesters and Catherine questioningly. They seemed tired and out of breath.

"We just ran into trouble on the way here." Sam said.

"Elizabeth attacked us, she knew we were coming." Catherine explained. Mae gasped silently, looking up at Castiel.

"I knew we should have gone and looked for them!"

"It's okay, we handled our own," Catherine said, she looked up, the sky above was darkening, it was almost time to summon the Afanc, "anyway, let's get started soon. It's almost dark out."

Everyone agreed and moved to get into position. Mae stayed seated by the shore on the ground, with the iron chains behind her and a lantern flickering beside her. The spell book was also by her side. Castiel disappeared but was not gone. He had only made himself invisible, so that the Afanc wouldn't notice his presence.

Catherine and the Winchesters left to hide in behind the trees that lined the clearing, with the sharpened branches in hand, ready to strike once the beast fell asleep on Mae's lap.

Once everyone was in their place, they all gave the thumbs up, and Mae took a deep breath. She softly began singing the enchantment, looking over the placid waters, anticipating the monster's appearance.

It was now completely dark out, and the light from the lantern cast up a weak light up on Mae's form, so that everyone could see where she was. The night was clouded, so the moon barely shone through the clouds and the stars were not able to light up the area. So Mae sang out alone in the dark, waiting for the Afanc to arrive.

Suddenly, something broke the surface of the lake. Waves began to form, and the water sloshed near the shore by where Mae was seated. She tried to keep her singing strong as she felt the dirt beside her crunch down, as if something large and heavy had just stood beside her. A strong wind blows down on her, which she supposed was the breath of the Afanc. Then, coming out of invisibility, it materialized next to her.

It was two times the size of a full-grown grizzly bear and had the head and the body shape of an alligator, but had tufts of brown hair on it back. It's paws also resembled beaver paws. Mae broke into a cold sweat but managed to keep on signing as it leaned down and placed its head in her lap.

After a few more minutes of singing, the Afanc's eyes closed, and it began to snore lightly. Mae stopped singing, and finding that it still slept, reached back for the chains. Bringing them forward, they made a bit of noise. She paused and glanced fearfully down at the beast. It shifted a bit in its sleep but continued to snooze.

With the help of Castiel, who had also come out of invisibility, she began to carefully wrap the chains around the Afanc. Everything was going according to plan, as soon as it was safely secured, Mae would quickly get out from under the beast, and before it could thrash about and cause an earthquake, they would all siege down on the Afanc, with the branches and then finally behead it.

However, something went amiss.

Out of the shadows of the forest, a soft singing began to drift in from the dark. It was barely audible, but it reached Castiel and Mae's ears, and they paused. The beast continued to shift in its sleep, and Mae began to panic, looking up at Castiel.

Catherine opened her mouth to scream for her sister to get out of there, but Dean rushed over and took Catherine in his arms and placed a hand gently over her mouth to prevent her from making noise. She held onto his arm, watching the scene helplessly, itching to do something.

Suddenly, Elizabeth walked out into the clearing, her singing becoming stronger and stronger. The Afanc's eyes flashed open, and its long, wide tail thrashed down on the ground, causing dust to fly up into the air, making it hard to see.

"No!" Catherine yelled, she rushed forward, and Dean followed close behind, Sam also ran out, but in Elizabeth's direction.

Once the cloud of dust dissipated, they saw that Castiel and Mae had disappeared; Catherine concluded that he had transported them out of the range of the Afanc.

"Thank you Castiel." Catherine prayed in her head, thanking the angel for keeping her sister safe.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she noticed the Afanc had become invisible again, and she was vulnerable out in the open with the unseen monster. Dean took her hand and ran with her towards the edge of the clearing.

"Come on!" he yelled, pulling her with him. Sam was still fighting the still slightly dizzy Elizabeth, who was weak from her struggle earlier. He dodged the few hits that she managed to lash out, before she tired herself out and passed out onto the ground once more. Sam found that the chains they used to tie her up were still attached to her arms, and he more securely re-tied her up to a tree nearby.

After, he quickly made his way into the safety of the trees as well.

Meanwhile, Dean and Catherine were hiding behind a wide tree, catching their breath as they listened for any signs of the Afanc. Soon, the sounds of trees being pushed over meet their ears, as the beast trudged through the forest, searching for his attackers.

The beast sounded like it had come to a stop and was looking around. Dean looked over and Catherine and nodded. He began mouthing a countdown,

"three," they tightened their grip on the sharpened branches they were still holding,

"two," Catherine braced herself to quickly turn around and launch the spear into the Afanc,

"one." They both whirled around, and hurled the sharpened wood towards the creature. It let out a horrible shriek, and flashed into visibility once more. Sam ran up beside them, the iron chains in hand. He had grabbed them before heading off to search for the others.

The beast was rearing, the branches had speared it's side. Suddenly, Mae and Castiel appeared a few feet away.

"Cas!" Sam called out, running over to the other side of the creature. Once on the other side, he threw one end of the chain over the beast, while holding on firmly to the other end. Castiel caught the chain, and held on tightly. They both pulled, and leaned down, pinning the creature down to the ground as it continued to roar, enraged.

Mae handed the axe that they had brought with them to Dean. He inspected the blade, before offering it to Catherine.

"Would you like the honors?" he smiled at her, but she gave him an incredulous expression.

"Just gank the sorry son of a bitch." She said, Castiel and Sam were still fighting to keep the monster down on the ground.

Dean shrugged, and then swung the axe up, and began hacking away at the creature's neck. After the third swoop, the blade went straight through. The Afanc became still and stopped thrashing about.

Everyone stood still for a moment, Sam was panting heavily, and Castiel had fallen back on his bottom, after the struggle ceased. Mae and Catherine were holding their breath, and watching to see if there were still any signs of life in the Afanc.

Once they were sure it was truly dead, they all cheered. They all went around, hugging, and enjoying the feeling of a triumphant hunt.

After hugging Sam and Dean, Mae walked over to Castiel, and the two embraced for a good long minute, glad that the whole ordeal was over.

Once Catherine had finished hugging and talking to everyone else, she walked over to Dean who was sitting on a rock, trying to wipe some of the Afanc's blood off of his hands.

"Good job Bean." Catherine said, sitting down next to him.

"Well, honestly, I don't think we could have done it without you two." Dean said, as he smiled warmly at her. She laughed and reached up, wiping away a few specks of Afanc blood on his cheek with her thumb.

"Same goes for us. We couldn't have handled this hunt on our own," she left her hand by his neck and stared into Dean's deep green eyes, "honestly, the best thing about this hunt is... that I met you."

Dean's gaze softened, as she beamed up at him. Leaning down, he placed his lips on hers, and she returned the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and it deepened, making them completely unaware of their surroundings. The only thing that mattered to them was that they were together, and that they never wanted to let go.

They heard the sound of snickering and paused and looked back. Castiel had his arm around Mae, and Sam had his arms crossed across his chest. They were smirking at the couple.

"Well, then, why don't we all clean up, and then go out to celebrate!" Dean said, everyone cheered. He got up, and then helped Catherine up as well.

After burning the corpse of the Afanc, they called the cops on Castiel's phone and told them about Elizabeth's whereabouts and that she was mentally insane and had tried to kill them. They left the phone by Elizabeth's unconscious body; Castiel didn't mind, since he barely used the phone anyway.

They all made it back to the cars safely. Speeding out of the forest, and making their way back onto the main road, they were glad to finally leave the forest for good.

The group sat at a table in a random bar that they had picked out while driving away from Great Rapids. They were all seated around the round table, all laughing and smiling at one another.

"So, are we ready to go?" Dean asked, as they all got up from their seats. He placed down the money for the meal and the beers on the table, and everyone walked out the door of the bar. They all stood by the cars for a few moments, before they hit the road again to begin their journey over to Bobby's house in Kansas.

"So, you guys sure you don't have anywhere to be after all of this?" Sam asked the girls. Mae was standing close by Castiel's side, and Dean had his arm around Catherine.

"Not really, we don't have a permanent home. So, we could spend a few weeks with you guys for a little vacation from hunting." Mae said, smiling at Sam.

"Yeah, we could use a break." Catherine added.

"I think we all could use a little rest for a while. But after," Dean said, smiling at Catherine, "we should all head out on another hunt."

Catherine grinned back, "what else would we do Dean? We're hunters for god's sake... it's what we do."

Everyone nodded and smiled, even Castiel grinned and chuckled along. The sky overhead was begging to brighten, signaling that the night was over, and that morning was coming over the horizon.

"We should get out on the road. We got a long ride ahead of us." Dean said. Sam nodded and said goodbye to the girls before heading for the passenger seat of the Impala. Castiel hugged Mae and planted a kiss on her forehead before getting into the back of the Impala. After saying goodbye to her angel and Dean, Mae left to wait in Memphis for Catherine, and to give her and Dean some privacy.

"So, you ready to drive over to Kansas?" Dean asked Catherine, she looked mischievously back at him.

"It depends, are planning to drive without hitting me this time?" Dean sighed and took Catherine's hands.

"Look, you know I'm sorry about that, and I'm still planning on fixing your baby up... and..."

Dean was interrupted when Catherine stopped him midsentence to give him a quick kiss on the lips. After she broke away, she smirked at him

"I know, just checking to see if you remembered." She broke away and began to head for Memphis, "Now let's get a move on Bean, and let's get out of this town."

Dean couldn't help but stand there for a moment, to watch her walk away before making his way over to the Impala.

Once everyone was loaded into the cars, the Impala drove out onto the open road, and began to speed down the highway, with Memphis following closely behind. Every once in a while, Dean would glance up at the rear-view mirror, and smile when he saw Catherine behind the wheel of the Camaro, grinning herself.

The cars made their way down the road, and towards the rising sun, traveling away from Great Rapids, marking the end to a successful hunt.


End file.
